What would I say if asked for advice?

There’s a statement attributed to George Bernard Shaw, it is “Youth is wasted on the young”, another columnist wrote, “Advice, like youth, is wasted on the young” both statements are very true. In considering my up coming birthday this year I looked back over the times of my life, the high, low, happy, depressed, rich, poor and everything in between and did the inevitable, the thing we all do at some point, I started with the “what if’s”, and “if only I had” and when I finished my reverie I was still in the same exact place I was when I started it. Someone in my family used to say at times when the what if’s set in “If the dog hadn’t stopped to pee he would have caught the rabbit!” I see the lesson here, “don’t cry over spilt milk”, “if life hands you lemons make lemonade” and on and on but still, here I am. Is there anything I can do to help the generations coming along? I have tried, thus the thought “youth is wasted on the young”. What advice would you give to someone starting his or her young adult life? I was often told “let your head rule your heart“, didn’t work out that well for me so I would say about falling in love, “Look at a person truthfully, don’t try to cover the stink with cologne and don’t let a person’s goodness be lost on you or taken for granted either.” To a young girl that is watching her figure I would say, “Eat wisely and exercise, fad diets and crazy things like barfing up your food will give you hernias and root canals later on in life.” To a young man “Don’t spend so much time lifting weights, you will be very sorry later on in life when your joints are screaming from abuse and your knees are gone to the point of preventing you from walking.” My advice would be to keep from making snap judgments and taking on the habit of gossiping, if people view you as someone who always has a bad word about others they will not like you and certainly will not respect you. Obvious things I would add would be to stay out of the sun unless you are wearing sunscreen, to floss your teeth religiously, to take your vitamins and get enough sleep. While you are young and have your health enjoy all the things you will not be physically able to do later in life, whether it is taking long walks or skiing down a snow slope. If you feel you have a calling on your life, follow it with all your heart and don’t look to others to give you a boost, it probably won’t happen and even if it does sometimes the ones who do the boosting having done it, want to take the credit for any good that you may do. It is better to call and lean on God, I am not saying you shouldn’t seek council, I am simply saying don’t count on it, as Jeremiah 17:5 says “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD.” If God has called you to do a work for Him while you are young then do it now before you take on a spouse and children, when you do that, they have become your field of ministry. All of the things I have mentioned are good, that is true, but the one most important thing I would advise would be to become very close friends with the Holy Spirit, to have daily walks and talks with Jesus and to be a seeker of His heart, to dance before the Lord with abandon and praise Him without restraint, to learn to “dwell in the secret place of the Most High” and to “abide in the shadow of the Almighty” Psalm 91. If you do these things then you will dwell safely under His wings and He will give His angels charge to guard you in your old age. Don’t come to your latter days only to look back with regret. One last piece of advice, “Dance like nobody’s watching; love like you’ve never been hurt. Sing like nobody’s listening; live like it’s heaven on earth.”  Mark Twain.