Last night I hung out in our hotel room working on a project and listening to my dad talk on the phone. He mentors a couple of guys, and although I don’t generally get to hear his conversations with them, I always find them interesting when I do.

Listening to his wisdom reminded me of how incredibly blessed I am. I’ve had the privilege of growing up in a family where my parents not only encourage us to continually learn and grow, but they also actively work on learning and growing.

One of the verses our family talks about fairly often is Luke 12:48b From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more. Living in the a free country with an incredible amount of resources is amazing, and also a huge responsibility. Instead of having to learn everything from our own mistakes, there’s a never ending supply of books, sermons, podcasts, articles, and people we can learn from.

This morning when I opened the Bible to the Proverb for today, the first verse really hit me. Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is brutish. 

Although I appreciate being instructed, I’ve struggled for years with accepting and responding well to reproof. I finally discovered that my problem is I see reproof as an indicator that I’ve failed, and I feel like I have to punish myself, therefore I dread it. In reality though no one is perfect, everyone needs to be reproofed, and reproof is a good thing.

I’m so thankful for the people in my life who are able to correct and help me. Life is way too short to have to learn everything on our own by trial and error, plus that would just be incredibly stressful and unhealthy.

Today I am thankful not only to live in a family where I know I’ll be kept accountable and lovingly spurred on to learn and grow, but I’m also very thankful to live in a country where resources are so readily available. Each day is a gift where I can read, listen, ponder, learn, grow, and become more of the person God has called me to be. And that is a huge blessing.

I hope and pray that Noveltea has useful information mixed in with the whimsical musings, writing updates, and life-ish things I post, so that y’all can learn from my life and my mistakes. Hopefully they will help y’all skip over some of the bumps in life that I’ve experienced, so you can go further, faster and live a eternally-significant life.

Happy Monday, y’all!