A Few of the Things I Wish I Had Learned When I Was Younger

Subtitle: Pay Careful Attention, Levi and Caleb (And Charissa too, for that matter, but I happen to know that L&C will almost certainly face a close replication of my own challenges)

• Learn self-discipline. When you're older, no one is going to force you to do the things you have to do when you have to do them. You must learn to do this for yourself.
• Learn to know the appropriate times for leisure activities. If you have an hour's worth of work to do, and an hour and a half to do it in, do not tell yourself you can play a video game for half an hour and then do the work. Two hours later, you will have gotten nothing done, missed half an hour's worth of sleeping time, and not have even had much social time with other people, even if you were playing multi-player. Instead, do the hour of work first, and if you end up with any of the hour and a half left over, spend it in good conversation with other people or get an extra half an hour of sleep. You won't regret it.
• Don't EVER give up spending a real amount of time for Bible study and prayer. Not for ANYTHING. And don't give it a half-hearted five minutes. This is the most important thing I can say to me, you, or anyone else. I was about to go to bed without having done it, but I'm going to go right now. Because I haven't payed as much attention as I should have to the above points, I'm going to have to miss some sleeping time for that. But even though sleep is important, Bible study and prayer time will do you more good.

That said, I'm off to--how shall I say it? Meet with God, spend time with God, grow closer to God; they're all true, but they're rather clichéd. Moreover, they are things that I should be doing not once, or twice, or three times a day, but every moment of every day. Rather, I'll say I'm going to rest and refresh my soul. It still sounds awfully clichéd, but I can't do much better right now. Goodnight.