Today…encouraging yourself this week
June 1, 2019
If I had known…I’m attending my bonus son’s graduation festivities this weekend. It had me thinking.
When I graduated from high school, I hadn’t thought about myself “someday” or “when.” I really didn’t think about my life beyond my 20s. I didn’t ponder, nor dream about, what my life might become because I thought those “old folks,” people into their thirties were sooo old.
There’s a familiar song “Dear Younger Me” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l70C3ePyIQ) in which the now older and wiser songwriter reminisces about what he would have told his younger self. I wonder if I would have told my younger self some of the realities I’d experience on this journey: starts, stops, and restarts to my bachelor’s degree, finding my voice through two master’s degrees, my professional groove during my doctoral degree, multiple miscarriages, painful infertility, adoption of daughter Sarah from China, birth son-Grant, cancer knocking on my life’s door, shame and loneliness from divorce, shunning and betrayal from siblings, the eventual loss of all my professional and personal abilities when Multiple Sclerosis took up residence in my body. I would be broken. Shattered. Multiple Sclerosis, Multiple Scars, defined my life at that time.
Some events were driven by my own decisions, others driven simply by life. Misfortune. Selfishness. Vanity. Yet, I wouldn’t go back and change them. They’ve helped make me become who I am today. I’m pretty sure I’d tell my younger self that I’d rather not hear any details. Surely the details wouldn’t be believed by my younger self. My younger self would tell me I couldn’t possibly do those things.
How about you? Have any regrets in life? Things you’d do differently or not at all? The great thing about living the encouraged life is that you have it today. Yesterday’s done, tomorrow may or may not be there for you. So, sharpen your focus on what you CAN do today, not wallowing in your yesterdays.
So, tell yourself and keep telling yourself that you’re living in today, and you will pay encouragement forward to another person. Ask God to be with you, pointing you to the person who needs encouragement. Encourage someone who needs it this week. Be creative. Be fearless. Be unafraid. Be anonymous.
Keep Living the Encouraged Life. You rock. 😁 Lynn
***If you’re enjoying my weekly BLOG, then please forward them to any of your friends who might enjoy them, encouraging them to subscribe. Thanks! Lynn
