My Journey’s My Own

A Devotional

Dear Me,                             I’m not entirely sure how to start this letter as I’m not sure what age we are right now as you read this. I’m hoping old enough to understand that we’ve been given a gift. No, I don’t know why or how, but a gift nonetheless. It’s wild right? A lot will happen to you in the next few years. I’m hoping you’ll listen to me and take what I’m going to say to heart and that you’ll be able to change just a few things so that our life, as I know it right now, can be a little easier…….

Wouldn’t this just be the absolute most amazing gift? The ability to write a letter to our younger selves that would actually be read? Of course, this is something that only happens in our imaginations and yet makes for a great dream. Who wouldn’t love to go back and change a few things with today’s insight?

Life. It is a trip. It is hard to say the least. Everyone has a different experience too, which is so wild. Billions of people on the planet and not one, not a single one has the exact same experiences. Not even when they are raised in the same home, with the same parents, doing the same things together. Only God could create a world like that. 

Every decision we make, big or small, has a consequence that will lead us down a certain path, then another decision will lead down another, and so on and so forth. Yet the Bible says that He gave us free will, and yet He knows which way we go. So which is it? Could it be both? He gives us the freedom to make our own choices and yet he knows us so well that he knows the choices we will make, so he knows the end game?

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Obviously this is a rhetorical question that my uneducated brain is never going to be able to answer, but one that I don’t mind asking and thinking about. I would still love to have the opportunity to write that letter though. Because that girl needs some advice from someone she will actually listen to. 

I guess the best any of us can do though, is simply live the best lives we can with the knowledge we have from our current life experiences. We listen to our older family members, who have the perspective and wisdom of time, we glean understanding from situations we have, we live our lives and go forward. Hopefully we also pray and lean on our spiritual relationships to help us as well. 

Personally, these relationships have been critical for our family multiple times. Not only when we were in crisis but when times were wonderful. I’m a firm believer that you must lean on your spiritual tribe in good times and bad, celebrate with them because then they’re there to hold you up when you cry.

Actions/Questions

Write your ‘Dear Me’ letter, just for fun. What would you say to you?

Who is your spiritual tribe and when was the last time you reached out to them?

Verses

“The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” Proverbs 16:9

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11