Children are impulsive. Often parents have to stop them by saying: “Think about what you are doing!” As adults, are we very different from them? Yet God’s Word says that our success lies in these moments of reflection.

“Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers, and blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord” (Proverbs 16:20 NIV). It’s as simple as that. Happiness is found in our moments of reflection, especially when these moments are accompanied by a discussion with God. We do not regularly use the term “meditate” in describing our daily activities. For some, the idea of meditation is a bit esoteric, almost New Age. Yet it is frequently mentioned in the Bible to take time to meditate on the Word. What is meditating? Meditating is to take a break and just take time to think in order to act. It is to absorb information, a truth learned in the Bible, for example, until this word comes to change our behavior. Reading the Bible will not change us. It is by meditating on it that it becomes useful; letting it sink deep into our minds until it leads us to act differently. “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it, not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it, they will be blessed in what they do” (James 1:23-25 NIV). We can meditate on the stories of the Bible until we learn how to behave in our situations. We can meditate on God’s promises to place our hope in Him instead of exhausting ourselves trying to produce a result on our own. We can remember our past mistakes so as not to repeat them, or remember lessons learned to ensure that we are always walking in the right direction. To accomplish a project, we can follow the steps mechanically, as we always have, or we can take the time to think with God about how to go about it. Let’s not wait until we’re exhausted or injured to wonder what we should have done. Hence the importance of taking our devotional time with God with our daily to-do list. We present to Him our objectives for the day, but we leave Him the opportunity to tell us how to get there. Who knows, maybe He will even change our goals! We have access to the age-old wisdom of the One who created our world, we would be crazy to do without it! That is precisely what the Word says. “Those who trust in themselves are fools, but those who walk in wisdom are kept safe” (Proverbs 28:26 NIV). Let us also let the Holy Spirit correct us. The Word of God is not only there to comfort us. Sometimes it rebukes us, and confronts us (2 Timothy 3:16). We must not persist in our direction, but always keep a humble and malleable heart. Singles, we do not have a partner to point out our mistakes and our faults. It is therefore even more necessary to have an attentive ear to the Holy Spirit so that He can transform us into the image of Christ. If we become comfortable reflecting on our behavior and are willing to change, our future relationships will be much healthier because we will have learned to listen and improve ourselves.