Dear Younger Me (Marvel At God)
Dear Younger Me,
Marvel at God. Don’t believe yourself when you believe you can’t see Him. There are times you struggle to experience joy and wonder, but when you make the choice to look for Him and find awe in what He does, you will see Him. You’ll find Him in a sunset, as the heavens declare His glory. You’ll find Him in a conversation with a family member. You’ll find Him as you listen to a phone conversation between two women, as one comforts the other through shared pain. You’ll find Him when you look at the blessings right in front of you with gratitude and appreciation.
While the people who walked with Jesus had the advantage of seeing His miracles and the wonders He was able to do, it doesn’t mean you can’t also be in awe of what He’s done and what He does and what He will do. Luke 9:43 says, “Awe gripped the people as they saw this majestic display of God’s power. While everyone was marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples…” You didn’t see Jesus walk on water or turn water into wine or make the blind see and the deaf hear, but you do see how Jesus brings people together. You do see the intricacies of the world and the things He has created (you’ll realize kiwis are really beautiful!). You do see the ways He has orchestrated your life and the people He has put in your life because He knew you needed them. You do see the way He works for and through and in others, too.
So choose awe, choose to marvel, and choose to praise God in the big and the small. Let His glory change you as you celebrate how amazing He is.
Love,
Megan
Dear Younger Me,
God is a God who keeps His word. When you struggle to believe that God is here and He is with you and that He can make all things work for your good, remember He keeps His promises. The entire Bible and all the promises that pointed to Jesus came true, and knowing that, you can know the promises about Him that remain standing will also come true. The promises for you will also come true. Healing, freedom, peace – all have come and will come. God who has given you His own incredible gifts has and will equip you to steward and cherish them well.
Hebrews 6 tells you that it is impossible for God to lie, and it says in Isaiah 55, “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” In this season, remember also the words spoken to Mary in Luke 1, “For no word from God will ever fail.”
This is true for the words God has spoken over you. You may not know what God has for you, and you also may wonder how on earth to handle what God has given you (even the blessings), but know that God’s plans and purposes and words that are over and within your life are ones that you can’t alter or change or break. His words are the best ones spoken over you because they are always true and will come true.
Love,
Megan
Dear Younger Me,
When your heart cries, “Where is God?”, He’s not far. When you can’t seem to see what God is doing or where He is, start to thank Him for who He is and what He’s done. Go for a walk, and as you walk, list all you can think of. You might think it’s ironic how many times God’s people in the Bible had to be reminded of God’s provision for them (especially crossing the Red Sea, and how could they forget that!?!), but oh, how you do the same thing when your world gets dark. You forget His goodness, and you need to be reminded of who He is and what He’s done.
Even if in your present circumstance, you can’t see Him or what He’s doing, start with everything else. Thank Him for the ones you love, your education, your health, your job. Thank Him for the moments and seasons you saw His mighty hand of healing, the doors He opened to show His direction, and the lessons you have learned over the years that have only made you more like Jesus. Thank Him that even though you can’t see Him right now, that He is present, He is working in this, and He’s going to bring you through.
Praise Him for who He is – He’s sovereign, He’s present, He’s your King, He’s your Father, and your Redeemer. He’s Love, He’s grace, He’s justice.
Feel the anxiety fade away as you see God’s hand has been holding you and working in you throughout your life. God is a God who keeps His promises, and the God who promises is also going to sustain you and prepare you to receive the promise.
Sweet one, He is near. Your eyes and your mind and your heart can’t see beyond what’s right in front of you, but choose to remember, choose to thank Him.
Love,
Megan
Dear Younger Me,
You will be complete someday. What a promise to hold onto, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion…but don’t forget that last part “until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6). You are always in-progress, always growing, always being renewed and formed and shaped into who God wants you to be. I know you want that work to be finished now, to be complete now, to be perfect now, and there are battles and struggles and works in your life that you may see come to completion, but overall, the perfection you seek is not going to be complete until that day.
Just look at how you’ve grown and what Jesus has brought you through already. You aren’t who you used to be, and you’re not who you want to be yet, but what a gift to celebrate that you are constantly being made more and more like Jesus, and that you are being carried. What a joy and blessing that God doesn’t ask you to fix yourself and make yourself perfect!
Look forward with hope and confidence in the knowledge that someday you will be finished, and know and embrace right now the grace given you in your incompleteness. And until then, and as He completes you, find joy also in this: “The one thing I ask of the Lord—the thing I seek most—is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in his Temple” (Psalm 27:4).
And wait patiently.
Love,
Megan
Dear Younger Me,
Jesus included you and includes you.
I know your struggles to fit in and feel included and valued, and I know how much it hurts to be left on the outside. Remember, though, that the greatest friend you can ever have chose you before you were born. He didn’t go to the cross for a few of His favorites. He went for the whole world, and that includes you. Every moment standing outside the circle, every moment the picture was taken without you, every moment you listened to others talk about that party – they can all pale in comparison when you realize that Jesus wants you, and that matters more than anything.
And He loves it when you include others. Live in the knowledge that you are loved, and then love others. You know what it feels like to be on the outside, so change that for others. Looking back, I would hope that you would become someone who sees the ones who need to be included, instead of being the one who seeks to be included. Just skip that step.
Remember that Jesus is the friend who includes you, who won’t leave, and who gave His life for you. There’s no greater act than that.
Love,
Megan
Dear Younger Me,
You are not what you do. Your value is so much more than that. There will come a time where you need to take a step back and rest from some of your responsibilities. I don’t think you have really realized how much you have tied your worth to the things you can do. You might believe that if you had to leave your job, you’d be fine, but when you really take a step back, you will see how much you find worth in what you do.
And as hard as it is to let some of these things go, stick it out, girl. You’ll find that there is freedom in resting from those things for a time, but you’ll find that people will surround you and remind you that you are so much more. You are valuable because you are you. You are valuable simply because God made you. You are loved even when you can’t keep up. You are loved even if you can’t do what you’re good at doing. God equips you for good works, yes, but His first act was creating you.
Allow God to take you to the still waters, and allow Him to restore your soul. Allow Him to carry your burdens, that you might find rest from those burdens, but also rest in Him and His love for you that isn’t measured out by the work you do.
Love,
Megan
Dear Younger Me,
Oh, honey, if you could only know how fearfully and wonderfully made you are. You struggle so much to see it, but there is such beauty in how God designed you. Read Psalm 139. He saw you while you were being made. He intricately wove you together and saw you before anyone else ever did. Just the simple fact that you exist is a beautiful thought because that means God thought to make you and wanted you. Your spirit is one He wanted to love. And He thinks about you all the time.
It is so easy to compare your beauty to others and to desire what others have. But I just so wish you would know and stand with confidence in the loveliness of your own design. Yes, you do have flaws because you live in a broken world, but even still, hear God’s whisper, “I’ll still take you with all your failures and flaws.”
And even with your personality and character, God put together a mix in you no one else has. You have the tendency, as others do, to scrutinize your mix. I wish you wouldn’t. I wish you would see and really dig into the beautiful parts of your character.
You are so loved, you are so so loved. You are God’s daughter, Jesus’ sister, and goodness, to think about how God thinks about you. Walk and live and breathe in that love, sweet one.
Love,
Megan
Dear Younger Me,
Oh, the pain your heart has been in. You’ve listened to the lies for far too long. You’ve believed words about yourself and how to live life that have locked you up and left you hurting. If I could turn back time and teach you this lesson to save yourself the heartache, I would, because you’ll find yourself broken someday under the weight of it all. And I can’t do that, but I can tell you that that’s not how life was intended to be – Jesus came for you to live in freedom from all of it.
Look at all the lies you’ve ever believed and why you’ve believed them. When you do, you’ll find how unnecessary it was to carry those burdens. Then write your truths (God’s truths) to counter those lies. Tape them in your room, and read them often. Then destroy the lies – burn that piece of paper if you have to. Watch them disappear, remembering that that’s what Jesus came for – to bring life from ashes, to make all things new, to redeem and restore. It’s a freeing feeling.
And no, it’s not easy to leave those lies where you left them. You have to learn to stop picking them back up and leave them in that pile of ashes. Because Jesus intends for you to live a life of freedom, of abundance, of joy, of hope, of peace, and of love as His dear child.
Because all those truths you’ll write for yourself come down to this: you are so loved by God your Father. And that’s what matters most.
Love,
Megan
Dear Younger Me,
Hey, you. Glory is still to come.
I wish I had all the right words to tell you that could give you the direction and the peace you desire. I wish I could tell you everything about how life is going to be so you could know exactly what steps to take or what decisions to make to get there. That wouldn’t be faith, though. Hold onto God’s hand as He leads and know that what you are going through now will never compare to what God has in store. Remember that promise found in Romans 8 that God has glory that will be revealed later. Your struggles now will pale in comparison. Choose to believe that God has a future in store for you that you could never imagine, and I’m sure you can point out some of those beautiful things right now that He’s put in your life that you never could have imagined.
Remember that God completes what He starts, and the story doesn’t end with ashes. Psalm 71:20-21 says, “You have allowed me to suffer much hardship, but you will restore me to life again and lift me up from the depths of the earth. You will restore me to even greater honor and comfort me once again.” Right now, I know your prayer is that God would just restore you to life again and you could care less about having greater honor – you just want to be restored that bad. Yet, hold on to the promise that God is a Restorer and Redeemer, and choose to believe that glory is still to come.
Love,
Megan
Dear Younger Me,
If you were perfect, you’d have no need for God’s grace and the beauty of His love for you. Take the story of the woman in Luke 7. She was known for being a sinner, and yet, she took a very expensive gift to Jesus and gave it to Him along with her whole self, weeping at His feet. The story would look a whole lot different if she was a perfect woman. You wouldn’t see the beauty of Jesus’ grace to her. She wouldn’t fully appreciate it or experience Him and His love. Even though she was broken, Jesus welcomed her, forgave her, and saved her.
It’s another story where Jesus’ power was made perfect in weakness. Why, then, would He ask you to be perfect, when He just wants you to rely on Him, when He wants to show you His power, when He wants His grace to reign in your life?
Bring your whole self and lay it down. Take it all to Him. I know you struggle with surrendering, but sweet one, I hope you would learn to surrender daily. As you struggle to hide all your broken pieces, Jesus sees you and loves you in your mess, and saves you from it.
Then, as the Luke 7 woman did, respond in love.
Love,
Megan