To my younger sisters: how to thrive
You couldn’t pay me to return to my teen years. When I say they were some of the toughest years of my life, I’m not kidding! The mean girls, the dramaaaa, the beginning of the ‘monthly plague’ which always visited at the worst of times and who thought it was a good idea to put a group of insecure girls in a locker room together to shower & change, really? Survivng those years were like running through a mine field in the dark. There was a code of rules set by the ‘popular’ crowd and all the rest of us were pawns in their hands trying to avoid any unneeded attention.
Sadly, I was filled with a pile of insecurities that kept me from living brave. I lacked the faith to know what I needed and to really understand my value. But…my story didn’t end in the hallways of a school. My lessons learned lay stored within a place I love to draw from and share. Days lost living in fear get redeemed…As I reach inside the layers of memories, I give you a handful of beautiful notes for living brave…I offer to you an alternative to the mask you’ll be lured to display.
Beautiful and grace-filled girl…as you make your way out to live brave, and even bold in our sometimes loud and broken world, walk with the One who will give you life…choose to thrive when others seem to be decaying in their beauty. Give them something to reach for, some sliver of hope in a room full of mean. They don’t really hate like their words scream they’re just lost souls needing some love and hope to lead them in life…God’s given them YOU!
So, brave and beautiful sister, take these words I give you and carry them. Etch them on your heart…and walk,
walk in courage as you live the life you were created to live!
#1 Love the One who loved you first… A heart satisfied by Him won’t long for the empty things of life to fill it.
You were designed by a creator who shaped your heart with Himself in mind.
The world will shout it’s pleasures longing for your worship, but a heart given to your heavenly Father will find what the world searches for.
The counterfeit pleasures of this life will never be able to provide what He was meant for. When you wonder if you’re loved…know you were made by the One who first gave you love!
#2 Be YOU…don’t be WHO you think others want you to be-the YOU God made is what our world needs.
When He picked you for our world, He knew you’d be a perfect fit for what it needed!
Edison brought society the light bulb, Alexander Bell our telephone and if it weren’t for Franklin’s discovery of electricity we would have not been able to use either!
Each tasked with bringing beauty into our world…don’t underestimate the purpose you’ve been given.
Let the YOU of today live now, don’t wait trying to figure out your destiny live in His for you today!
Too many of you wanting to trade in
true beauty
for a different image in the mirror…
when the truth is others are dying to be you!
You see, beauty is always reflected when we live-it-out-loud.
May the shouts of our world
be hushed by the breath of His living word…
His words
lived through loving
people…
is nothing less than
BEAUTIFUL!
#3 Live to Serve, there’s enough taking going on ~be the difference our world needs!
In a world where faces pass us by without a notice in time, be the ONE who looks into the eyes of others and let them know they matter.
Step down when it means lifting someone else up…needs surround us everywhere we go, be available to serve others, whether the lowliest or the most prideful…every heart needs love.
When we serve others, we embody the One our world doesn’t know. In loving others we show them how we love Him.
The times we see the world through our own insecurities we overlook those who really matter. In many hallways of our schools we miss out in seeing real images of God when we’re fixated on a look- the true image bearers are those who reflect His likeness…the smile given when one seems all alone, an offering of words of kindness in moments of silence and choosing the ‘others’ when it means sacrificing the crowd. These quiet steps of courage change the course of lives and make memories that replace the ugliness which exists.
The more we think of ourselves the less we see others…
#4 Look in the mirror before you stare out the window. Although it’s tempting to point out others faults, filter those thoughts through your own weaknesses and struggles.
Our world needs the confessions of our hearts more than our condemning glances.
There’s too many lives full of hurt for us to injure deeper. What they need is more people who will listen to their struggles and lead them to the One who restores.
Empathy has the power to heal brokenness…our ears can do more healing than our tongues may ever do!
#5 Choose Courage rather than living in Fear. Brave living is in the mind & in the heart.
How we live each day is up to us, no person, no name called, no story given determines whether we choose
big courage or shrink back to fear.
Our minds are the places our brave living begins,
it’s here we choose to walk with Him who knows us best or walk alone.
No matter what name is thrown at us
or if we’re ignored,
our mind is a gift from Him above
who knows our thoughts and knows us well and yet loves us all the same! When life is hard
and we wonder if we can do it,
repeat the words He so lovingly wrote down for us each day of the year… ‘Do not be afraid..’
He knew all too well our battles would be fought hard
within and we would need
His brave BIG words every day!
Why don’t we need to fear?
Because…
He’s enough to face our days.
He is with us every where.
There’s nothing that attempts
to tear us down which
He can’t rebuild.
For even in the darkest, deepest times
He is there!
Brave One your ONE life was not given for ‘surviving the drama’, it’s much too priceless to waste on such silliness, your ONE life was given as a precious gift to be shared…so, share it BIG!
And when the craziness of life starts to overwhelm you and get the best of you- remind yourself, you alone are your soul-keeper…what you let come in & go out depends upon you. Live big, live brave and always, always live for HIM!