Driving in the Rearview Mirror

I have always had a fascination with the idea of writing a letter to one's younger self. There have been plenty of songs written that eloquently describe the advice that each person would give to themselves as a teenager. How they would warn against certain events, who they would advise to spend more time with, and just general life advice they've learned over the years.

When thinking about my own life, I wondered what I would put in this letter. I would probably tell myself to not watch so much reality tv and pick up a book every now and then. I would let me know that I'm okay in the future and to not worry so much about getting A's because in all honestly, no serious job I've had so far has asked what my GPA is or was. After I made a few terrible puns and dad jokes so I would know it really was me, I would get to the serious stuff that I needed to know. Like how I don't need to obsess over the amount of calories in the food I eat, but instead can find joy and peace in cooking. How I should take myself less seriously and truly say yes to adventures without worrying about what was to come after. I would hint at the amazing adventures I would go on to other countries, road trips with close friends, and more laughs than I could have ever imagined.

Then I would open up about where God has led me in the last couple of years. How He has taken me from a girl who was insecure in who she was and was terrified to speak her mind, to a woman who trusts that her future is in His hands and has confidence in the abilities she has been given as they came in love from her Creator. I would explain to this naive teenager that as she falls more in love with Christ, she will also begin to fall more in love with herself and that is all that matters.

The longer I write this, the more I realize how I've been so stuck in my thinking that I am still that teenage girl. I take situations and place them in the lens of my past when I should really be focusing on my future. I have grown in more ways than I could have imagined at 15 but I wouldn't change any trial I've gone through, any conversation I've had, or any adventure I've been on because they all add up to who I am today and whose I am is all that truly matters.

It's time to stop driving in the rearview mirror, and start looking at what is ahead.