3 Simple But Very Important Life Lessons a Pencil Can Teach You
Learn these things and your life’s story will be one of the greatest stories ever written
1. Sharpening Makes Useful
If a pencil is to be useful and effective, it must be sharpened and resharpened over and over again.
Sharp pencils offer greater clarity, smoothness, and precision than blunt pencils. Without sharpening, a pencil will become dull and cannot perform as intended.
All of that sharpening would be excruciatingly painful if the pencil were a sentient being but without the painful experience, it would not serve its purpose.
Sharpening though painful is what it takes for a pencil to be useful.
Life is pretty much the same.
All of us experience painful experiences and challenges in our lives, but through these challenges, we are able to develop our character to become useful in the world.
Through pain, we grow into our best selves.
Just as a pencil must be sharpened on a regular basis, you should sharpen yourself through your spiritual practices on a regular basis.
It is important to stop from time to time and sharpen your mind, body, and spirit. Only then can you become sharp enough to focus and give your best effort to the work that has been assigned to you.
Sharpening though painful is what it takes for a pencil to be useful.
2. Mistakes Can Be Corrected
Every good pencil has an eraser at the end. You can correct many mistakes you make along the way, just like an eraser on a pencil.
If you make a mistake with one end of the pencil, you can immediately erase it with the other end. All you need to do to correct it is to go back and see where you went wrong and make it right.
And if you are able to learn from your mistakes, then they are not mistakes at all but rather valuable lessons that can help you improve.
All you need to do to correct your mistakes is to go back and see where you went wrong and make it right.
3. Always Leave Your Mark
Sharpening a pencil over and over again results in a decrease in its height. The shorter the height of a pencil, the shorter its lifespan.
But as long as the lead in the pencil is still present, it continues to function.
You will face many troubles and difficulties throughout your life. You can’t escape it. You will face various challenges and setbacks at various points, and you be subjected to different pressures.
But no matter how short your lifespan becomes, you must continue to write and leave your mark. You must continue to do your best work.
You must think of stumbling blocks as stepping stones and never stop writing until you’ve written all there is to write and you cannot write any longer.
As humans, we are required to work toward our goals until the end of our lives just as pencils do. You can’t stop just because you’re reaching the end. As long as you have breath in you, you can leave a mark in the world.
Every day, you are writing your own story, and just as with a pencil, wherever you go, you can leave your mark.
No matter how short your lifespan becomes, you must continue to write your life’s story and leave your mark.
Also — Remember What’s Most Important
You are an eternal soul inhabiting a temporary body, just as the graphite inside the pencil inhabits the wood. Without the wood around the graphite though fragile, the lead can still make marks.
The most valuable part of the pencil isn’t the wood on the outside but the graphite at its center.
This is the same with you.
What is inside is more important than what is outside.
The most important part of you isn’t your physical body. It’s what’s inside you. In the same way, the soul is more important than the body.
Do not worry too much about the things that hurt the body. Rather, worry about what’s hurting the soul.
And Then Remember — Pencils Don’t Brag
You may do great things in life, but you should never forget the hand that guides you.
Without a hand guiding and moving the pencil, the pencil is nothing at all but dead wood and valuable lead at its center.
Just as the pencil won’t brag, thinking it has written a book, you should not be arrogant about the things you are able to achieve.
The pencil does not take credit for its work and so you should always remember to give credit to God who guides your hand as you write your story.
Remember these things and your life’s story will be one of the greatest stories ever written.
© 2023 Kimberly Fosu. All rights reserved.
Note: This article is only meant to provide spiritual guidance and lighthearted content.
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