Dear Younger Me

With commercials still going strong about losing weight, getting fit, volunteering more…and the list goes on, with only three weeks into the New Year, I can’t help but wonder about others’ RESOLUTIONS. If you made resolutions, are you empowered yet or feeling defeated? If you don’t bother making resolutions, why? Is it a waste of time or a challenging incentive?

As I sat in church on New Year’s weekend, we were challenged to look back on 2016 and see where we fell short or where we were empowered, then use that as a footing to build upon for 2017. Are there things we missed out on? Things that we spent too much time on? People we missed seeing? Books we hadn’t read? Places we hadn’t travelled? This pondering brought me to a much deeper thought and it reminded me of an assignment I had a long time ago when I was in college. We had to write a letter to ourselves at an earlier time in our lives. What would we tell ourselves now that we see where we are? We used a variation of the same assignment with our youth ministry group after a retreat, but they had to write to themselves a year into the future. They had to explain what they were feeling at this moment and where they wanted to be in their faith life a year from then. Either way you look at the assignment, it called for some introspection.

I’ve never been one for resolutions. I can’t remember ever making them – perhaps because I’ve always lived somewhat spontaneously and never gave much thought to the here and now, as a teen. When I had kids, I changed considerably. With four kids, I had to plan out every step and constantly felt the disappointment of not being able to follow through with the meticulously laid out life plans that I had. So, I’m sure I figured “why bother with resolutions that would inevitably be broken.”

Now, entering the “mid-life” years, I have the tendency to think back and question the decision I made; the paths I chose. Did the choices I made make me into who I am today? Do I measure that question with whether I’m happy or not at this point in my life? Did I make my life harder? Easier? If I had known then what I know now, would I have changed? Would things be different?

I’m not sure I have the answer for myself, let alone what I would say to anyone else, but they’re still some good questions to think about as we look on into the New Year and use what we find to determine which paths we will follow in 2017. Can the decisions I make this year be impacted by looking back to similar decisions I’ve made in the past, and where those outcomes led? What have I learned from this?

Christian living doesn’t give us a crystal ball…..I believe it gives us something better – God’s promises. Scripture shows us, over centuries of time, that His word is faithful. We can believe that we are holy, we are worthy, and we have been redeemed. Nothing – nothing at all is lost when we believe in God, for every step we take, brings us closer to who we were meant to be. He can make all things new. By the power of the Cross, our sins have been forgiven and nothing is impossible, nothing is hopeless.

“Your new life is not like your old life.” Peter 1:22

“I’ll give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you.” Ezekiel 36:27

So, let me pose a question to you – if you were to write a letter to your younger self (let’s say anywhere from at least 10 to 20 years ago), what would you tell yourself?

Please share your comments below.