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Showing posts from February, 2023

Advice to My Eighteen-year-old Self (Part 4)

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  While in Dallas over Christmas, my husband and I got to see an early release screening of the movie Jesus Revolution. Tonight, it was officially released in the movie theaters, so we had to go again. Once again, it was an amazing movie about a generation desperately seeking something real. During much of the movie, several young adults were trying to find love and acceptance. Eventually, they realized it was with God, even though God showed that love through flawed individuals. As I think back to my eighteen-year-old self, I remember being extremely self-conscious. In my head, I felt like I had nothing to offer, so why would anyone want to talk to me? I closed myself off and isolated. When I had that life-changing encounter with God I found my value wasn't in anything I could offer. When you think about it, what could I bring a God who has everything and made everything? But that is exactly what God wanted-me. My value is His love for me. I can't do anything to earn it. He...

Advice to my Eighteen-Year-Old Self. Part 3

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  I found some old pictures from my teenage years, if the glamour shots didn't already give that away. For the last few weeks as I watch my children become young adults, I've thought about what they should know, so I am continuing my advice to my younger self. So my advice to my eighteen-year-old self would be 3) it will get better. There were multiple times in my young adult life when times were hard. During these times, it was really easy to hyper-focus on the negative. Everything became shaded with dark glasses. There were points that I felt like I wouldn't survive the hurt, but it always got better. Sometimes it got a little worse, but it never stayed that way. The best advice I was given was to look myself in the mirror and tell myself what God said about my situation or me. I made a list of ten scriptures from the Bible and read them every day to myself. As I told myself that I was more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus, and that as I waited on the Lord, I would ...

Superbowl or Superbowl Commercials? (Part 2 of Advice to My Eighteen-year-old Self)

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Across America, there are two types of people gathering-Team Superbowl and Team Superbowl Commercials. I am beyond a doubt a commercial girl. My brother played football all through high school. He was even the quarterback. Between that and being in the marching band, you would think I knew something about football. You, however, would be wrong. The ball games were the times I hung out with friends, walking back and forth to the concession stand. I never paid attention to the game. Flash forward to now and the same still exists. I spend Superbowl parties talking to friends, and my favorite, watching funny commercials. Some years are letdowns while others are pure gold. At one point, I started cheering for the team with the best uniforms or a player with the best backstory. Either way, many would think this is a waste of a good game. So the next thing I would tell my eighteen-year-old self is 2) Don't get so caught up in the distractions that you miss the big things happening in yo...

Advice to My Eighteen-Year-Old Self (Part One)

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  This weekend was a major milestone in my life. My youngest child turned eighteen this weekend. At least legally, all of my children are adults. This is the point where I insert crying and weepy faces. I remember the time when all of my children were little. I had three in diapers for a span of 5 or six years. As I changed unending diapers, cleaned endless messes, and battled temper tantrums, nightmares, and boo boos, I felt like independence would never come. Now, as we celebrated all my babies growing up, I realized that in a blink, they're grown up. For my son's birthday, my oldest son wrote him a seven page letter giving him advice from his experiences over his young adulthood. This had me thinking what my current self would tell my eighteen-year-old self. Over the next couple of week's I want to share what I would tell my younger self.  1) Things don't have to be perfect to be from God. When I was younger, I had this rose-colored glasses look at the will of God....