| During my travels, I asked more than 500 | | | | to cross one. |
| students from across the country the question, | | | | * Have faith when you're in the valley of life. |
| "What are the three most important lessons that | | | | * Solve your own problems through the power of |
| you've learned in life?" Below is a compilation of | | | | God. |
| their responses (all duplicate/similar answers were | | | | * Knowledge is power. |
| either combined or eliminated): | | | | * Never pray for something you can't handle. |
| * Put God first in all you do. | | | | * Respect your parents...your life will be a lot |
| * Be yourself. | | | | easier. |
| * Do unto others as you would have them do | | | | * Always respect yourself. |
| unto you. | | | | * Do for yourself. |
| * Love yourself enough to love others. | | | | * Think before you run (to or from it). |
| * Measure your success by how many times you | | | | * Build a strong family. |
| refuse to give up. | | | | * To thy ownself be true. |
| * Be thankful and grateful for what God has | | | | * Stay in prayer. |
| given you. | | | | * Be an example, not an excuse. |
| * Set long-term and short-term goals for your life. | | | | * It's much cheaper to borrow experience than to |
| * A lie never dies...so don't give birth to one. | | | | buy it (learn from other people's mistakes). |
| * If you can't get excited about living, you might | | | | I must admit, it was surprising, as well as |
| as well be dead. | | | | refreshing, to see that students are actually |
| * Follow your heart. | | | | paying attention to what we say and do. Contrary |
| * Have faith in your life because you're here for a | | | | to popular opinion, our work is not in vain. |
| purpose. | | | | As the father, I can't begin to tell you how much |
| * Everything happens for a reason, and | | | | I appreciated each student's participation in this |
| everything will eventually work out. | | | | exercise. These are definitely lessons I would like |
| * Stand behind your convictions (keep your | | | | to pass on to my son. I'm sure you would agree |
| integrity). | | | | that we could all enrich our lives tremendously if |
| * The best thing you can leave behind is a good | | | | we just took action on only 25% of the lessons |
| impression. | | | | listed on this page. |
| * Choose your friends carefully. | | | | I personally believe that the hardest lesson in life |
| * Value education, not only classroom instruction, | | | | is our failure to master the easy ones. When we |
| but life lessons as well. | | | | fail to master the easy ones [lessons], they soon |
| * Love the Lord with all your heart. | | | | become hard ones. Don't you become a victim to |
| * Speak up for yourself. | | | | the easy lessons. Make sure all of your mistakes |
| * Build bridges...you never know when you have | | | | are new ones. |