Dear Sister,
Life is a beautiful gift full of mysteries and adventure. Each life is so perfectly unique and intricately designed. Full of joy, God fashioned each one of us with great reverence and awe making us set apart and wonderful. We come into this world full of childlike wonder and curiosity, and yet somewhere along the way words get said and lies get believed and mindsets begin to change. We pick up beliefs about ourselves that were never part of God’s original design, and we adapt them into our personality. Then, we label ourselves accordingly, and we change the very identity of who God created us to be.
If I could go back and speak wisdom into my younger self, I would say let go of the worry about being the perfect mom and the perfect wife, because the striving left me exhausted. Perfection became a mirror that I held in front of myself. If I didn’t finish my checklist of all the things I had to do in a day, then I felt like I was a failure. The busyness of twirling all the plates of being a mom and a wife and going to work each day left very little time for me to take care of me, but I believed that I didn’t matter. Then, because I was so busy with all those things, I would feel like I was failing as a daughter and a sister and a friend as well. Yet believing these lies created weariness, depression and even bitterness. My identity became based on what I could do and what I looked like to other people, which set me up for never feeling like I was good enough or successful at anything.
In Hindsight, I would tell my younger self you are perfectly made but you were never created to do all things perfect, only God can do that. I would say be intentional about taking care of yourself and spending time with God. Neglecting yourself for the sake of your family doesn’t make you better, it depletes you. The place you need to be in is a place of abundance where you always have more to give to others, but that only comes from getting away to spend time with God. I would tell my younger self to intentionally focus on your spirit, soul, and body. Get closer to God and have conversations with Him not just words thrown at Him. He wants to heal you, but you must position yourself to hear Him. Take care of your body and your soul. Eat healthy, get sleep, and take time to do things that bring you joy. You need to have a healthy spirit, soul, and body to run this race of life well. Lastly, I would say stop believing all the lies that you took on as truths. Peel away the layers and get alone with God and let Him tell you truth. He created you with great joy and delight. He has places for you to go and people for you to reach. He has innovative ideas that He wants to give you for your day to day life. He loves you more than you know, and He sees you and hears you. Draw close to Him and let Him whisper mystery and wonder back into your life, and live life fully in every moment of your day.
So, as you look into your past and present life, what do you see? Are you striving? Are you believing any lies? Have you changed your identity because of those lies? What do you need to let go of and what do you need to be more intentional about in your life? Life is too short and too important to not live with intentionality. Give yourself grace, love every moment with your family, and lean into the arms of God when life gets busy and hard. He sees you and He hears you, and He is waiting with an expectant heart to spend time with you.
