Write something that you wish someone would have told you 10 or 5 or even one year ago.
Life has a way of making us believe that we can see everything in the stage of life we are in. It deceives us into believing that we are always functioning with the whole truth. This will cause you a lot of pain in your lifetime, and you will hurt others as well. Remember you always have something to learn.
The world is broken even if at times it can seem absolutely perfect. People are broken too. Because of this, our assumptions will be incomplete, our hurts will not always be resolved, and our hearts may feel like we don’t belong.
Know that you are a piece of a larger puzzle. All the puzzle pieces are somehow meant to create a beautiful picture together, but each one of us has an edge bent or we are flipped upside down and feel we ‘just don’t quite” fit with the others around us. Resist the urge to create your own puzzle, that’s not the answer.
Don’t let how you feel deceive you. You are way more special than you could ever imagine and the world will never tell you the truth about yourself.
It will tell you that you need to fit where and how they want, but you won’t ever know your uniqueness or how special you were made to be in your attempt to be like everyone else.
Becoming who you are meant to be is going to be one of the hardest things you ever do.
Even those who know you the best may not know or always understand what it is that you are meant to become. Sometimes fear is what keeps them from seeing. Sometimes daily routines prevent them from believing in the adventures that you are called to go on. Give them grace, your calling isn’t theirs, its yours.
The world will not tell you the truth. It will tell you its truth. The problem with a broken world is that it will create and claim broken truth.
The world will tell you that you don’t need God, but the reality is that you need to answer that question for yourself. No one can decide for you and they aren’t meant to. Don’t let them.
You must have a truth to bump up against or you will get lost. Choose this truth wisely. Don’t let it be “your” defined truth, let it be something bigger than you.
When you feel sad, or hurt, don’t settle for not knowing why. Don’t believe that when you are misunderstood it means something is wrong with you. That is a lie.
Seek to understand what grieves your own heart because part of your calling and who you are to become could be hidden in the pain. You are worth digging deep for and sometimes no one is going to be there to help you with the shoveling. Do it anyway.
Because you are special, what you have to offer the world matters. Your contribution is only yours and cannot be replaced by someone else. The talents you have been born with mean something. They are for something. They will help someone so don’t keep them all to yourself.
You will make mistakes and sometimes you will be able to fix them and sometimes you won’t. Make things better if you can, learn from the ones you cannot.
Don’t be afraid to love people. If you find you don’t know how, it’s ok. Pray and ask God to give your heart more for the task ahead of you. Know that it’s ok not to know. Keep a teachable heart.
Be thankful for what you have to offer the world even when others don’t even notice. Recognition is not validation. It just means someone noticed you.
You will do way more for the world and for God that others don’t see. At least that’s how it should be. The small things, the you behind the scenes, it is important.
Enjoy your life and try to live it well and safely but not without adventure and the need for great courage. Don’t try to be perfect, just continue to learn how to be you. Give it your best each day, and that is enough.