Dear Younger Me
When you’re on vacation, do you tend to people watch? People watching is something I definitely find myself doing! Especially this past summer, my husband and I went on vacation to celebrate our 20th anniversary and our kids weren’t with us. While I was people watching, I found myself drawn to young mommas and their little kiddos.
As we would walk down to the pool or go out to eat, I found myself watching them, tears would come to my eyes. I had absolutely no idea why, I thought I must be getting emotional as I get older. One of these times that I was observing, all of a sudden the phrase “Dear Younger Me” came to my heart and mind, instantly a lump formed in my throat.
Being back from vacation, this phrase keeps coming back to my mind. Every time I sit and think about that moment I get this feeling in my heart and stomach. Why does this statement keep coming to my mind? “Dear Younger Me” has sent me on a search for what God is trying to tell me and what God is asking me to do. As a confirmation, as I was processing this whole experience, I came across this quote…many times:
God has placed us on this earth to make a difference in the lives of women around us. He led us into freedom in 2019 because we all have a story. We have all had things happen in our lives that we have had to overcome, whether if it was something done to us or by us. Now more than ever ladies around us need to see and know our realness. Is there a cost? Yes, we have to become vulnerable in order to become their survival guide. There are risks with vulnerability: heartbreak, rejection, embarrassment, shame.
Ladies, there is one big reward of vulnerability that can’t be overlooked. When you step out with courage and help someone else walk through their story, you will witness what no one else will, SURVIVAL. How our relationships with other ladies will deepen and become more intimate when we decide to be real with ladies that God has placed in our path.
As Christians, we tend to want to forget where we came from and just focus on the right now. As Christians we want to focus on ourselves, get ourselves free and fix ourselves. Sure, we are supposed to forget the past and move forward with God.
“Stop dwelling on the past. Don’t even remember these former things.”
Isaiah 43:18-20 TPT
We are supposed to live a life of freedom and walk in the freedom He gives.
“Let me be clear, the Anointed One has set us free—not partially, but completely and wonderfully free! We must always cherish this truth and stubbornly refuse to go back into the bondage of our past.”
Galatians 5:1 TPT
But our Christian walk is so much more than that. One of the main themes of Galatians is FREEDOM! That is why I found it so cool that after Galatians 5:1, comes Galatians 6:1-6 TPT:
Carry Each Other’s Burdens
“My beloved friends, if you see a believer who is overtaken with a fault, may the one who overflows with the Spirit seek to restore him. Win him over with gentle words, which will open his heart to you and will keep you from exalting yourself over him. Love empowers us to fulfill the law of the Anointed One as we carry each other’s troubles. If you think you are too important to stoop down to help another, you are living in deception. Let everyone be devoted to fulfill the work God has given them to do with excellence, and their joy will be in doing what’s right and being themselves, and not in being affirmed by others. Every believer is ultimately responsible for his or her own conscience.”
Ladies, God didn’t save and remake us so that we would be quiet and ashamed. He saved us and remade us so that we would go out and proclaim the goodness of God. How can we proclaim the goodness of God if we are caught up in our own shame? I feel that is why God has led his daughters on the path of being Wild and Free in 2019. God has prepared us to assist Him in giving the women we encounter Perfect Sight in 2020.
God has led us to our freedom so that we can be bold and relentless as we impact women’s lives around us! What would M1 look like if we decided to allow God to use us as His tools to restore perfect twenty-twenty focus to his daughters?
It leads me to this: What would I tell that mama if I had a chance to sit down with her? What stories would I have to share with her that might end up making life a little easier on her and/or her family?
If I could tell this momma one thing, it would be to find your value and self worth in Christ. Look to Him for your acceptance and approval. Don’t seek it from the world. Don’t look to the world to “Fill your Cup”. Don’t look to the world for reassurance. If you seek these things from the world, you will end up going down roads that lead to constantly comparing your life to others, which leads to complicating your life, and compromising your family, your faith and yourself.
Living a lot of my life looking to the wrong things to give me value actually did the opposite, it actually took value away from me. When my journey to find value led me the wrong way, it left me feeling worthless instead of worthy. Fear of not being accepted how I was caused me to compromise who I was. I became/morphed into what is acceptable to the world and end up not even recognizing myself. When you don’t find your value in Christ, then you don’t know that you are enough and that you are loved exactly how you are. Don’t let this happen to you. Yes, God redeemed me, but it made my life so much harder than it had to be.
Don’t get sucked up into the worlds idea of what everything should look like. How you, your husband, your marriage or your kids should behave or look like. When we start believing and receiving what the world says everything should look like, we begin opening the door for discouragement, disappointment and deception to enter.
I would tell “Dear Younger Me”: Instead of searching and seeking out what the world says you need to live and be happy, why don’t together, we search for, seek out and surround ourselves with women who will point us towards God and surround us with prayer! How about we form circles around us before the world tries to separate us and desensitize us.
Could it be different for other women? What if we could reach these young mommas before it’s too late. What if we became transparent about what we have overcome and have gone through in our lives. What if we put our pride aside and our fears aside and just told our story. Allow God to use you and your story. Let your story and what you have learned lead other women to recover perfect sight of their Fathers love and value of them.
Of course as I was writing, the song Dear Younger Me kept coming to my mind. Which led me to look up the lyrics, when I read the bridge I was amazed of how much “freedom” ties into “Dear Younger Me”:
“You are holy
You are righteous
You are one of the redeemed
Set apart a brand new heart
You are free indeed
Every mountain every valley
Thru each heartache you will see
Every moment brings you closer
To who you were meant to be
Dear younger me, dear younger me”
We are all these things: holy, righteous, redeemed, set apart & FREE! But only because of God! Step out ladies and take this moment to complete your freedom story, be who God needs you to be to someone younger..or even older…
Yes, it will be uncomfortable and a million reasons will run through your mind why you can’t do it, but remember:
“Jesus must become more important, while I become less important.”
John 3:30 CEV
So what is your Dear Younger Me story? What is one life lesson that you would share with your younger self that would have made your life so much easier, and so much less painful? Now, take that, and use it to be someone else survival guide.
