"Life-lines"

“Go on, be a go-getter!”

“Good things come to those who wait”.

“Be sensitive and tender-hearted”

“Be tough and thick-skinned!”.

“Successful people do not sleep! They burn the midnight oil”

“You need about 8 hours of sleep to be productive”.

“Put yourself out there. Grab life by the horns. Go hard!”

“Take it easy. One step at a time, Rome was not built in a day”.

“Live life to the full and don’t look back”

“Take time to reflect, life is  best seen in hindsight”.

“Stay hungry”

“Be satisfied with what you've got”.

It seems to me that there is so much advice out there about how to live life. When presented as a collection of punchy phrases they seem a contradictory bunch, don’t they?

The truth is I don’t think anyone really knows the formula to live a happy life. Really, how could we know when we are all having our first go at this?

As a lady in her 20s, it’s not unusual that I spend a lot of time trying to figure out what I must do to build a bright future. But I must add, it is overwhelming and frustrating when the self-help books present you with ambiguous advice. What worked for one person left the other unfulfilled.

So, there I was at the drawing board, very confused.

“Remember to trust in God”. My father added this to the growing list of memorable one-liners last night. This one had been tucked away at the back of my noisy mind and needed to be brought to the forefront. I am reminded by the Bible that He has plans for each of us that supersede whatever plans we have for ourselves.

“The heart of a man plans His way, but the LORD directs his steps” Proverbs 16:9

“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that will prevail” Proverbs 19:21

“For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” Philippians 2:13

Now how’s that for punchy phrases that tell you what life is really about. These are the true lifelines for someone like me who was drowning in the sea of society's wavering counsel.