Take a minute and see if you can figure out the difference between a travel agent and a tour guide. Well,,,,, here it is. A travel agent talks about places they have never been where as a tour guide tells you about places they have been. In the issues of life, there is a huge difference between a travel agent and a tour guide.

You say, “Keith, why are we talking about this?” it’s a metaphor for a life lesson I want you to get and fully understand. Many of the life situations you have been through are areas where you can be a tour guide for your children, friends and family. It always rings fake to me when a person that has never gone through what I am going through gives their opinion on how to do it. See, they are a travel agent on the subject not a tour guide.

If you are in the jungle (of life) you want a tour guide who has been through there. You don’t want a travel agent telling you their opinion having never gone through what you are going through. You want someone who has been there.

When you look back over your life, if you are human, there are mistakes, failures, pitfalls and life land fields you have been through that you would like to keep your family from having to go through. You can be a tour guide based on your past, not a travel agent. As you look back over the mistakes in your life that you wish never happened, think about this. Is it possible, you went through that season of life, so you can help those around you now to not have to experience it.

This doesn’t mean if you are a life travel agent you can’t give advice. Rather, it means you can say, “Bob/Susan, I can’t pretend to know what you are going through but I can be here to listen and I can hold your hand and pray for you.” When you say that, you just bridged the void between travel agent and tour guide to help someone.

Use your past to be a tour guide because just maybe, that is why you went through it. KT