Note To My Younger Self

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I’ve been contemplating lately. So I decided to write myself a note.

Only this note is my younger self.

My Letter To Me

Dear Michelle,

You are growing sober in your thinking because your twenties are enlightening you to life, pain and purpose. You will try to outrun pain but it won’t work. Pain can’t be outran, only processed.

You will be enlightened about Motherhood, homemaking and exhaustion. Who knew going to the grocery store without small children would feel like a mini vacation?

You will attempt to be everything to everyone, learn to say no. They will find someone else and the world will be fine without you doing it.

One day you will be a coffee snob and turn your nose up at bad coffee, passing on it altogether if it looked like tea. You will become shocked that you could give up doing hair and feel a call to ministry. Ministry would have been the last thing you would have chosen but God chose it for you.

You will learn a lot about human nature and your weaknesses. When life shifts don’t fight it, embrace it.

You will go through a horrible, nasty divorce but you will survive and know yourself and others better. And you will forgive and learn about grace.

When your children are grown, you will be sad. You will remember how you cried at every birthday they had because you knew it was one more year closer to them moving out.

You will still want to snuggle with them and hold them tight and pray away all their hurts and disappointments. You will learn to accept the fact that only God can save them.

You will always love the beach and candles, lots and lots of candles.

When you see clearly you can see the path and are able to move on.

You are doing the best you can so free yourself from false guilt and be gentle with yourself.

Here Are Some Life Lessons You’ve Learned

Don’t take yourself so seriously. Stop worrying and go to sleep.

Stop waiting until something seems perfect before you do it.

Slay the demons of self-doubt.

Continue making friends in life.

What you see as your weakness is actually your gift.

Invest in others.

The happier you are the less critical you will be.

Don’t rush the seasons of your life.

You will never know who loves you until you walk through rejection, then you will know.

Don’t try to hold onto people who don’t hold on to you. Why strive with a lot of investment in relationships with people who make minimal investments in you? God won’t be made when you say ‘No!’

Stop trying so hard to gain the approval and acceptance of people. Their opinion will always be shifting depending on if what you do is pleasing or appeasing to them.

Don’t despise your curves, embrace them, after all it was your hips that enabled you to birth children.

Don’t compare yourself to others, your gifts and calling is different from theirs.
Do things you are afraid of so that you are able to see what things are possible.

Accept people for who they are, not who you wish they were.

When you outgrow things and relationships hold them loosely so God can take them out of your hand and put something else in it.

Every single thing you went through taught you something.

Do it even if they say it can’t be done.

Live unselfishly with a generous heart so that your world enlarges and doesn’t begin to shrivel up.

Forgive others quickly because we all mess up.

Look up to others so they never feel looked down upon.

Give to those who can give you nothing in return.

Defend the weak.

Give someone else the best seat.

Exercise and eat healthy because your body deserves that.

Drink tons of water which I believe can help almost anything.

Never underestimate good bed sheets or good wine.

Give people your undivided attention because they are worth that moment.

Reality is when you remove the rose colored glasses and sit with the pain for a while. After that, shake the dust off your feet and move on.

Failing is the reality that you tried something that didn’t work and you get to try again.

Laugh a lot, it heals the heart.

You can love well when you are loved well.

Storms will come but don’t forget you have a storm shelter. When they are over, you will still remain.

An imbalance in your spiritual life shows the imbalance in your natural world.

Your children will mean more to you than life and you will have to let them go and trust God.

Trust what you are putting in your children.
Trust the love you taught them.
Trust God with your children more than you trust your children with God.

Trust God to lift them out of pits they get in.

Trust the prayers you prayed are heard.

As you age you see with wisdom and it only clarifies the reality of how life really is.

You are gonna be nuts about your grandchildren. They will turn you into putty everytime.

You are gonna enjoy cooking.

Enjoy your fast metabolism in your twenties.

You will be sad as you watch your parents age.

Read a lot of books.

See everyday as a gift.

This too shall pass.

Television is way overrated.

Live for eternal things not external things.

Never underestimate kindness.

Let someone go ahead of you at the grocery store.

Practice patience, it is grossly underestimated. None of us make it out without developing it in one way or another.

Listen closely when elderly people tell stories.

Look for God in everything and you will find the silver lining.

Be grumpy for a moment but never for the day.

Forgive yourself.

Enjoy the moments because they are gone in a blink.

 

By the way…what is your note to your younger self?

1 thought on “Note To My Younger Self”

  1. Dear Michelle,

    We’re all on a path… and when we cross paths with others we tend to only offer a moment of our lives with them, because our day is filled with things and moments.
    So, when we have the opportunity to be someone that can slow down and take that moment out of our lives and possibly make someone’s life a little better? you’re doing God’s work.

    We’ve all overcome extreme things in our lives and yet we continue to get back up, brush ourselves off and move forward.

    I’m sure you know about my past as well… so I’m nobody that’s perfect in anyway. But I have been given a path that is to be used for His purpose.
    Didn’t know any of that until I called out to Him.

    At the very moment after being locked up and the door to my cell had closed.
    I look up and cried out to Him and asked “Please God help me!”… as soon as I had finished my sentence, did I hear a voice , telling me that,
    “I will help you, but you must first suffer” at that moment tears started to pour down my face , and I was actually at peace with what was about to happen in my life. It was only after I had gone through the fire, years later, that I realized the very meaning of what that day meant.
    I finally understood that life wasn’t truly just about me, my wants, but it was to help those that are in your path. Of course there are a lot of people in our path each day, but we truly must know which ones are there for us to help.
    Looking for the signs that we have been given to detect those people, are just an awareness of how close we have become to God, for those that can understand the mission also understand that staying the mission requires faith.
    That brings me to a story….
    In 2008 there was a local craft fair I had set up a booth at in June of 2008, I had been there several hours already and noticed from a distance a biker looking guy, black leather jacket, boots, jeans, typical looking biker guy…walking through the show passed several other booths, and directly towards my booth…. I thought to myself…ok…. I have a customer….
    I never saw him stop at any booth before he got to mine. there were at least 10… I had my engraved rocks, glass, and wood carvings all displayed on the table covered in black table cloth. Like the rock that I gave you was on the table displayed.
    He had a biker leather on, and he had long black hair down to his shoulders and a beard and mustache…. didn’t think about all that until I realized the significance of that meeting.
    He looked at the rocks and quickly picked up the “FAITH” rock…, He said to me “This is a good word”… I waited for a couple of seconds and acknowledged his comment, I replied “yes it is”, and he asked how much it was, I replied, “$10 sir” Without hesitation, He said ok and gave me the $10…which I should have kept but didn’t realize it….. and walked straight back from which he had walked , and again he never stopped at any booth on the way out…. I’ll remember those moments because that is the exact time that we must listen to the message He is offering. Faith would be my word.
    My stories could go on, thinking back to when I was younger the signs I failed to notice but were staring me right in the face…. It wasn’t until your dad mentioned to me in 1990’s that “I needed Jesus in my life”. I always told him yes I do…, I know Mike, I know…. But didn’t find Him until I had turned 43….in 2004, That very moment the cell door closed.

    Sorry for the long-winded letter. Just wanted you to know that no matter what we are doing in our lives, the mission will always be the same. Love thy neighbor as you love yourself, treat others with respect because we don’t know what others are going through, and finally forgive those who have done wrong and Bless those who are fighting for the Lord each day! Love each other every day!

    Love Always,

    Uncle Ron

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