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I’ve been going through Proverbs in my Life Application Study Bible, and I’ve found myself gaining nuggets of wisdom. My spiritual gift isn’t wisdom, and I often have had to pray for wisdom to come from the Lord. Having wisdom is essential in making the right choices in our day to day. Abiding by God’s truth helps ensure we live our lives according to our plans as well as His plans for us.

Do you ever feel stuck? Like your mind is running a mile a minute and you’re just stuck, lying in bed and ruminating, holding onto grudges and bitterness, envying others while scrolling through social media, and you can’t help your negative thinking patterns, which are paralyzing you? And you have a million things to do — working on an academic paper for a cardiology journal, preparing your lesson plan for a student, studying for the classes you’re taking, going into the hospital or research lab to volunteer, work on job applications, do some coding for the infant start up idea you’ve been feasting on for forever, and working out to get the body of your dreams. And you know these things have to be done, they’re on your to do list, you wrote them down on sticky notes, you even taped them to the bathroom mirror. But you’re still rotting on your bed, looking at TikTok videos and Instagram reels instead of doing the work you need to do to get the life you want and the success you know you’re meant for.

I recently finished reading The Power of Self Discipline, and it’s been enlightening. It talks about managing the discomfort that comes from doing things you have to do and how exercising your self control muscle will alleviate the discomfort day by day. While it didn’t offer tips on creating the ideal productivity system, it helped me formulate and refine my current productivity system.

Discipline is about doing things in the present that your future self will thank you for later on. For example, running 30 minutes outside will help your future self be more fit. Learning how to play several chords on the guitar will help your future self be better at guitar. Spending some time cleaning your apartment will give your future self a more organized and clean space to work in. Instead of giving into instant gratification as many are wont to do, discipline yourself to eat the frog and do the thing that your future self will be grateful for. Delay your gratification for your future success.

When you’re six years old, you don’t have much in life to worry about besides listening to your parents and having fun with friends and figuring out your future out.

Several things I know I want to be in my future – rich, married with a family, and a doctor. Not necessarily in that order.

Besides figuring my future out, I’ve gotten into the habit of trying to figure myself out. Whether it’s journaling or taking personality tests.

I’ve gotten knee deep into personality tests. There’s not much I can do on the computer without adult supervision and parental controls, so I just look up personality tests on the Internet.

I think I’ve belonged to 10 churches over the course of my life. 10 is a nice number, and I’m not exaggerating. All right, if you want to know all the churches I’ve been to, here’s the list. Minus some names, that I’ve forgotten.

1. Church of Baptism - the Catholic church where I was baptized in NYC. I come back here after returning to New York in first grade.

2. Church of London - the Catholic church that I went to with my guardians where I was baptized again and was Confirmed. I started a fundraising initiative, was in charge of refreshments including lemonade and desserts and cakes, and started a Christian rock band.

“So I’m going to die in two months.”

I look up from my notebook to see Mike grimly set his mouth in a straight line. I’m drawing infinity symbols again, something I do from time to time. I have an obsession with infinity. I love the idea of forever, and how infinity just stretches on and on and on.

Mike doesn’t get it. He doesn’t believe in forever or eternity or infinity. He thinks everything has an expiration date.

He’s so cynical sometimes. But that’s one thing I like about Mike. I don’t like the trait in others, but in Mike, it feels complementary to me.

I finished studying the book of Hebrews, and I wanted to share what I learned in my study. Hebrews is aimed at Jewish Christians to encourage believers to remain steadfast in their faith by illustrating the superiority of Jesus Christ to Old Testament heroes and figures. Jesus’s sacrifice is final and sufficient for salvation, rather than Old Testament practices of sacrificing animals. Through Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven and we can accept his sacrifice for us, being cleansed and made whole through taking Communion.

“Fix your thoughts on Jesus.” - Hebrews 3:1

Putting God first and foremost means trusting him over any person in this world. God is the ultimate parent, therapist, doctor, pastor. Go first to God for advice on your troubles, and others are secondary to him. Talk to God through prayer and listen to him speak to you so he can sustain you in times of stress and pain. God can be relied on in times of suffering and pain, he is the one who is unchanging for all of Eternity.

I’ve been learning more about the sanctification process through my church Church of the City (NY). They have an awesome series called Formed, which talks about the steps to salvation — justification, sanctification, and glorification. Sanctification is the process of becoming more like the likeness of Jesus Christ with the help of the Holy Spirit. Three actions that catalyze the process of sanctification are affliction, mortification, and vivification. Affliction is the process of suffering all Christians go through the same way Jesus suffered, mortification is the process of putting to death sin, and vivification is the renewal of the soul by the Holy Spirit.