I’ve spent a good amount of my life doubting my decisions and often living in a hesitancy to failure. Now that I’m older, have much gray hair that I color every seven weeks, and have experienced things, I wish I had had someone tell it to me straight and be truthful. It is why I’ve taken a moment to accumulate nuggets of wisdom to pass along to my children, as if I was talking to my younger self because if tomorrow never comes, then I know I have spoken my truth today.
Dear Younger Me,
I know I can’t go back in time. But if I could have sent you a message, a note, spoken to you in a dream, I’d tell you these words:
Practice makes progress, not perfect because when you practice something long enough, you are really making progress. Perfection is not a mass finality, but rather an individualized, personal goal.
Gentle words, gentle play.Thru calmness, comes clarity.The best conversations are with myself.Don’t put words in the air that don’t belong there.Pain always follows the wanting.Get in front of the problem.
Fight the problem, not the people.
There are simple answers to difficult questions.
Turn your fear into a friend, not a foe.The decisions you make today affect you five years from now.Limit distractions. Stay on course.Don’t live for anything; stand for something.If you don’t stand for anything, you’ll truly fall for everything.Friends are people of passage. Find your people.You can only grow where you plant good seeds.
Grow where you are planted. And if you get replanted over and over again, dig your roots, and keep growing.
Don’t be a troublemaker, be a truth seeker.I’m temporarily closed…. forever. (Love the oxymoron)
I need God to pour into me so I can push out the overflow to others.Some questions have no answers.Love is love, but love is better when you love in truth.Love is love when it is done in truth.It’s how you overcome; not how you succumb.You either die suffering or suffer in dying!Test everything. Discern all.Everything good that comes out of me is from God, Everything bad in me, is from me.Lord, direct me to move out of the way, so You can make a way.Some people don’t want to make peace with you, rather they want a piece of you.Forgiveness is really for you to let go.The hardest people to love and pray for are the ones who persecute you.Rather than scold or talk badly about a person, pray blessings over them.You can’t control the passing on of generational curses, but you can stop them from being activated in your family.Wisdom, revelation and knowledge of Him, Jesus Christ is far better than all the education of the world.Be friendly with everyone, doesn’t mean you have to be what they are.It’s okay to feel that you don’t belong. It means you are growing in maturity. Put away your childish behavior and grow up.Not everyone is going to like you.Don’t stress about fitting in when God made you to stand out. Be separate from the culture.You’ll always going to have people jealous of you.Your biggest enemies are usually the ones closest to you.Family is blood. You can’t change that. But toxic blood often resides within the family. Get it out! Cast it out of your life!
If you don’t love in truth, it isn’t love.Stop appeasing those who keep using you.If someone doesn’t like you, no matter what you do, it won’t change their dislike of you. It’s because they’re threatened by you.Friends and family don’t always want you to succeed.No one friend can be your everything. Have many different friends with different interests.
Dream.
Be a risk-taker, not a regret-maker.
Pay someone’s bill.
Dress up for no reason and go to the grocery store.
Wear lipstick just to go for a walk.
Rather than watch a movie, turn on the television and watch cartoons.
Dance in front of your mirror.
Sing!
Work. It will teach you responsibility.
Learn to manage your money.
Go out to dinner alone every once in a while.
Love yourself.
Love God and love people.
Read. Read everything.
Get into God’s Word. Really read the Bible. IT IS a blueprint for living this earthly life.
Fretting and worrying all the time is really overrated.
Really watch a sunrise and a sunset.
Sleeping enough does help.
And it’s true. Never grocery shop when you’re hungry.
Never make big decisions when you’ve been drinking, are tired, or hungry.
Be true to yourself because no one is going to do it for you.
To be continued…
NOTE: This blog post was inspired by the song, “Dear Younger Me” by MercyMe. Check out the video here.