The blind leading the blind

Many make this mistake: They confuse love with wisdom. How's it? When they have a problem, they look for advice from the people they love instead of from the people that know what to do about it. Of course, if the people they love are the ones that know what to do, that'd be perfect.

It's usual to see people seeking for advice concerning a marriage problem from people that are in a worse situation, or seeking for a financial advice from the ones that are constantly in debt, or advice concerning of how to be free from an addiction from the ones that are in the same way for years. The blind leading the blind, lost people guiding lost people. If you've been doing that, surely you've realized why you're not prospering in that area.

When you seek for help, seek for help from someone that, at least in that area, have gone further than you. It's not necessary that that person has succeeded in all the areas of life so just then to ask for advice. Besides, if you're going to wait to find someone perfect so just then to ask for advice, I think you'll wait for a looong time.

When you seek for help, seek for help from someone that, at least in that area, have gone further than you.

That's why it's recommendable to have several mentors or counselors for different key areas of your life. The Bible says that there is wisdom in the multitude of counselors (Proverbs 11:14). For example, you can have someone to help you with your physical condition, someone else (or a couple) to help you with your marriage, another one with your finances, etc. Maybe more than one for each area.

One danger of looking for help for a specific area from people that haven't succeeded in that area is that, most likely, they have justified their failure; so, what you're going to receive is a justification of why they are like they are, dooming yourself to follow the same way. So, don't look for an advice from those that justify their divorce, that justify their bad physical condition, that justify their poverty, etc.

If you want to share your problem to your friends so that you may receive emotional support, go ahead and do it (always with wisdom), but please discern the advices you're going to receive from the ones that you're not. They might be telling you many things out of love, but they're not necessarily the right things.

I hope this may bless you a lot! =)

Learn to prevent

We learnt to prevent the hard way. I think it happens the same to most people. It was when somebody hit my car (as you may know, you never hit your car, somebody always hits yours course!), and repairing it cost me almost 700 dollars (in Peru, that's is a lot of money). I needed my car, so I had to pay it. It was then that my friend Pedro told me that I would have payed only 150 dollars if I had an insurance. Then he added: "Sadly, most Peruvians don't have a culture of prevention."

It happened the same thing when my first son was born. That Cesarean cost us almost 2500 dollars! (I have nightmares till now!). But we learnt the lesson, because the Cesarean of our second son costs us only 250 dollars because we got a health insurance. We also got a car insurance, which saved us many times!

It's true that sometimes we don't use the insurances, but looking at the big picture, it results much more cheaper to have an insurance than not to have it, not mentioning the peace it brings you. Now we want to obtain an earthquake insurance.

Don't worry that I don't want to sell you any insurance. I just want you to think that it's better safe than sorry.

In Matthew 7:24-27 Jesus talks about two people, one prudent and one fool. The prudent built his house on the rock because he thought that it'd rain and that there would be a big torment. In the other hand, the foolish one most surely thought: "Oh, come on! Do you really think that there will be such a big torment that it would destroy my house! Here, on the sand, it's ok to build!" But we know that the ruin of the foolish person was great.

This passage of Matthew perfectly applies to the situation of floods and inundation that we lived in Peru early in the year. How much hurt and loss we would have averted if we had prevented! Our next door country Ecuador gave us a big lesson in that regard. They were the prudent and we the foolish.

Accidents, sicknesses or any other bad thing can happen to anybody. The thing is to be ready for when they happen. I encourage you to pray, to ask God for wisdom, to ask other people for advice, get informed!, and make better decisions to prevent bad things that may happen to you.

Proverbs 22:3

"A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, but the simple passes on and are punished"

Being Naive or Wary

For some reason, most people think that everybody that goes to church is perfect, that all of them are good and, therefore, every church goer is trustworthy. Big mistake!

One characteristic of many christians is that they're just too naive. Maybe they're thinking: "I can see that this person right there is a good christian because he's raising his hands when we worship and says 'Amen' and 'Hallelujah' in every other word. On the top of that, he says bye saying 'God bless you'. I am positive, he is trustworthy." And based on this, without any further investigation, christians lend him/her money, start a sentimental relationship with him/her and just give away their trust. They asume that he/she is trustworthy just because he is christian.

Remember this always: TRUST IS A PRIZE, NOT A PRESENT. And for someone to get to be trustworthy requires TIME.

If you've been giving away your trust, I'm almost sure that you have already disappointed and/or gotten in some trouble. Do yourself a favor and don't give your trust away anymore.

Just because of the fact that a person goes to a church, even if he/she has time attending, it guarantees nothing. Before of starting a business or a relationship, before of trusting your kids to someone, etc., double-check his/her trajectory, verify if he/she has gotten fruits in that area. Be demanding on this matter! Do not believe persuading words of people that, consciously or unconsciously, deceive (Proverbs 7:21-23).

Do not think that being wary is a bad thing. On the contrary, being naive and, because of it, not administrate well what God has given, that is a bad thing, and it brings along a lot of bad consequences. Obviously that not trusting a person even that that person has demonstrated an impeccable trajectory (which requires a lot of time) is an exaggeration and it only shows a personal problem of not being able of trusting people (but God can heal you!).

It is not a bad thing being demanding on who to put your trust on. In fact, that's being wise.

"But, if I don't trust anyone, I will have no friends." Do not give your trust away based on the need of friends. If someone stops being your "friend" because you mistrusted him/her, I think he/she never was your friend all along.

Do you want to succeed in all the areas of your life? Then do what the people that have succeed have done, and I really doubt that you'll find someone successful in business that simply has given away their money to anyone, or that you'll find someone that has opened their heart to a stranger that has enjoyed a solid and flourishing relationship. Are there exceptions? Yes, there are, but are you sure that you want to take a risk?

If you say: "Why didn't I read this before!", don't worry because our Heavenly Father doesn't condemn you, but He helps you to restore everything! Run to Him and you'll find the help and the guide you needed!

Hope this helped you!

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