On June 25th, I wrote the vow I put in my last post, the one about vowing to be authentically me. Since writing that vow down in my journal, I have truly become more authentically me. Each day I have a million opportunities to either give in to those around me and the pressures to fit in, or to choose to be me; to stand up for what I believe in and to be confident in my journey.
The other night while I was journaling, I wrote this – “Own Your Journey! You’re the only one living your life. You’re the only one that gets to decide how your circumstances are going to affect you. Life is hard enough as it is, why would we make it even harder on ourselves by letting life’s trials and bad decisions knock us down and steal our joy?” If I have learned one thing this summer its this – be proud of who you are and where you have come from. Every decision you have ever made, whether it was good or bad, right or wrong, has shaped you into the person you are today! Be proud of that person! She is beautiful! She is strong! She is resilient! She is enough! I had the opportunity on several occasions this summer to sit and talk for hours with people I had just met. We talked about everything. Religion. Politics. Relationships. Family. Careers. You name it, we talked about it, and you know what I found? I was able to be fully me with them and in return, fully loved while being fully known. Sometimes I feel like we get stuck in ruts in our communities and all of a sudden we wake up one day and realize that we haven’t been fully honest in a very long time. We’ve been saying the same things over and over again and, in my case, saying everything I knew would please those around me. This summer, no one knew anything about me prior to me telling them about myself and every time I would share my heart with them, they always ended the conversation with telling me how glad they were to have met me and how amazing my journey is! This is not a boast to me at all! It’s a boast to honesty! True honesty! All of our journeys are different. All of our journeys have mistakes in them. All of our journeys have moments that feel too ugly to share. But all of our journeys are beautiful if we truly embrace all of the twists and turns and see that each road led us to where we are today. My journey is far from over! And each day I am thankful that I get another day on this journey called life. If there was another lesson I learned this summer, it’d be this – we were not meant to journey alone. The Lord brings people into our lives for a reason. Sometimes it takes years before we see why He allowed certain people into our lives, but I believe that every encounter we have with another human being is God ordained and there is something to be given and received in each interaction. Whether that interaction is 2 seconds or 20 years, there is beauty in every human relationship we get to be a part of! My beautiful and resilient fearless wanderers, be fearless in your journey. It’s not always easy, but it’s always worth it. Will everyone always think your journey is amazing? No. But with honesty comes vulnerability and with vulnerability comes the ability to grow. To become more confidently you. To become more authentically you. Don’t be scared to be who you were created to be! Speak truth over yourself and remember – You are strong. You are brave. You are beautiful. You are enough!
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2 Timothy 1:7For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of POWER and of LOVE and of a SOUND MIND. Archives
March 2021
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