Work Backwards

In math class in school, we always had answers to the odd problems in the back of our book. Occasionally, I wouldn’t know how to work a problem, so I would look at the answer and work backwards until I could figure out how to work it both backwards and forwards and do it on my own. It would force me to consider the steps needing to be taken to get me from the beginning to the end. There have been so many times in my life that I’ve had to take that same approach.

Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish," and Habakkuk 2:2 says to "Write out the vision and make it plain."

We had an assignment to write an epitaph about our own lives in high school. We were challenged to think about how we want to be remembered, what we would want people to say about us at the end of our lives. It was that vision that saved me from giving into a lot of peer pressure growing up. It is vision that has helped me develop a lot of self-control and form good habits at times it’s so tempting to give up. It is vision for the different houses we’ve done that has helped me see them through until the end. It is vision for the joy of seeing our babies and trying to do what’s best for them that has helped me naturally endure the pain of childbirth. It was vision for the joy set before Jesus that helped Him endure the cross. Vision gives pain purpose and helps one develop self-control and discipline. Without vision, people lack purpose and cast off restraint. Why would I take anything other than the path of least resistance if I don’t have vision?