A friend visited me years after our graduation from the university. She watched me for a few days and one day she blurted out,

‘Ify, what happened to you? You were never like this in school.’

I looked at her straight in the eyes and said just three words:

‘I grew up!’

Seriously? What was she expecting? That I would remain the same? A wild wish.

Saint Paul said, ‘When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.’ (I Corinthians 13:11)

Do you remember the things that excited you when you were a child? Do those SAME THINGS still excite you now?

Probably not.

And why not?

Just three words: You grew up.

It is time to grow up. Time to stop living on past glories and reach for future victories.

Bishop Oyedepo quoted a popular wise man during the Excellence in Leadership Conference of Daystar Christian Centre:

‘Give me my youth back and I will pay any price for it.’

But that is not possible.

Why?

You have grown up.

I was thinking of the message to share today and these three words kept resounding in my spirit. I could not pretend that I did not understand what they meant. I knew the meaning. Even though I tried to deny it, I knew I needed the message even more than those I am sharing it with.

It is time to stop whining about lost time; to stop imagining a life that can no longer be lived; to stop blaming people and living in the past and start making the most of the time you have left; to let God restore your wasted years by letting go of past pains and looking forward to a future so bright, it threatens to blind you.

Yesterday is an old expenditure. Forget it.

Today is a present. Treasure it.

Tomorrow is pregnant with possibilities. Work towards it.

One last word:

‘But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and yes shall go forth, and GROW UP as calves of the stall. (Malachi 4:2)