Dear 16 Year Old Me,
You should know that high school love does not last for most people and broken hearts are a real thing. I wish you would have known that when God called you to ministry, that it wouldn't always be in a building that is called a church, but it would be an inner city middle school in Las Vegas (like you ever thought you would live in a place called "Sin City"). You will have the opportunity to influence and change the lives of about 1,000 students and their families in the first five years of your teaching experience and you will actually be good at it and enjoy it. Your confidence will be found in Jesus more than anything else and you will relearn the lesson of finding your security, dignity, and strength in Jesus time and time again. Your first year of college will be hard and a little lonely, but stick it out... you will end up loving the experience and the people that you are around. You will travel to Africa multiple times and kids will love you there and not just because they know you were on homecoming court or you were semi-popular. Popularity doesn't matter forever, love for people will though. Stop worrying about what others think of you. They don't always really care or matter honestly. You will repeatedly get the opportunity to fall more in love with Jesus because of others in your life and especially because of the people you surround yourself with while you're in college. They will speak life into you and help your hurting heart and deep scars heal without ever even knowing it. After you move to Las Vegas, there will still be more heartache and more pain and more scars but you will still choose to trust the God that makes all things new again and you will get to renew your heart, especially your mind, in some times when you are completely alone. You will lose relationships there but you will regain the friendships that God desires for you. Your salvation will be the very breath of who you are and you must solely lean on Jesus several more times than you would ever think. You will find that your deep dark secrets and guilt are held in the hands of the God of the universe and He will change you completely and forgive you and open wounds so that they are healed. You won't marry your high school sweetheart (or sweethearts :) ) but you will continue to have relationships that make you who you are. You are good enough, no matter what you have continued thinking during your teenage years. There will be some time periods where you become depressed and life becomes dark but God will restore your yearnings for Him and you will not be able to get enough. You're going to make it. I promise. You will. Trust God and believe Him and surround yourself with people who really do love you and care. They will encourage you to trust Him more and more. You will have to wait for some things longer than others but they will come when He desires them to. Again, you will make it. You will.
Love, 27 Year Old Me
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