I'll Tell Them

One day I'll pull out the pictures I never deleted to point at the smile you taught me to keep company through even the toughest times.

I'll reminisce over the memories we shared,
the love we learned,
the heartache we endured
together & apart.

I'll point you out when the kids ask about this time in my life
because you are worth every word I'll speak of you.

These lessons are worth sharing because they have hurt me and mended me forevermore.
They explain my scars.

I'll tell them not to be afraid of risking everything for love because even when it disappoints you, it leaves you with treasures you had been ignorant to before.

I'll tell them to speak kindly to those that treat them well,
those that open their doors,
those who tell them how they light up the room when they smile.

I won't tell them the sweet nothings you told me, though.
I'll save some keepsakes for myself.

I'll say that you never stop loving someone,
your love just evolves.

I'll warn them against putting caps on how good something can get with another because of fear.
I'll tell them fear doesn't define our lives, we are not captives to it.

I'll tell them to keep the old love letters, even when all is said or done.
To reread them and remind themselves that their scars are real,
their happiness is genuine,
not to be afraid of the lives they've lived before,
not to be weary of acknowledging it was real.

I'll tell them to be silly,
to be themselves and to allow others to do the same.

I'll tell them to make friends with the people that sit around them in school,
they become your best of stories,
your best of friends.

I'll tell them to cry when they are hurting,
angry,
or
helpless,
that it's okay to feel these things.
But to laugh more than they cry.

I'll tell them that they cannot move forward while looking back.

I'll also tell them that when I became the most important priority to you, above even God, Himself, I prayed like hell that it would be taken away from us
...even though that was the furthest thing from what I truly wanted.
I'll make them promise to always put God first.

I'll tell them to be prayerful too
for what is RIGHT and commendable,
not just for ourselves.

I'll tell them to go away for the summer, even when it means flying across the globe to a foreign land away from everyone you love, everything that is comfortable to do something that sounds crazy.

I'll tell them to go
every
single
time.

I'll remember you, all that we shared, it haunts me but I willingly allow it to.
I will & I do cherish it, while still it stings with pain, delight, passion, regret, & so much tender sweetness.

I'll tell them you were one of the greatest lessons I've ever known. A lesson I had to learn over and over and over again and still don't always understand, that we need those in life because they keep us moving, never stagnant. I'll tell them about you and I hope that by the time these stories make their way to the surface again, that I'll believe leaving you in the past was the right thing to do-- that you are better as a memory, a tale seemingly fictitious.

I hope I'll have internalized everything I'll tell them when the time finally comes.

Gentle Nature

I've realized lately how fierce people are lately, how unkind, how selfish. We use our words to hurt people. We fill our mouths with alcohol and dirty words. We use our bodies to tempt others into wanting us physically & we are jealous for materialistic reasons. People are ugly and evil to the core but that's not where it ends.

We are spiritually dehydrated. The unclean parts are more evident in the lives of those around us because we are addressing the things we also don't like about ourselves. We must start calling forward the good, the things we do appreciate like trustworthiness, people who spend quality time with us, sweet words, kind souls, sincerity, gentleness.

...how much those qualities are worth, how uncommon.

We need change. We need God, the fountain of life, of gifts, of every good thing in this world and beyond. His spirit is the only good in us and He carries the ability to overturn even our evilest desires.

So, be kind.
Be sweet.
Be gentle.

Don't let it be a temporary high, let it become your nature, Let goodness overflow from you and enrich the lives around you. Let kindness and serving others become permanent occupants that manifest themselves into your character, then let others admire it and seek Him out to be changed from the inside out as well.

But start by addressing the ugly parts in yourself. Take some time for inventory and take them before your Father. Let them be known, forcing them into the light so that they may be cast out.

Mediocre

I've come to a realization lately how often we allow ourselves to be put into categories. We are placed into roles of gender, age, religious affiliations, education, unfortunate past occurrences. The things that we had no control over, like our parent's divorces or people that fell off the wagon along the way whom we've been forced to move on from-- they do not define us but we let them anyway.

We allow ourselves to dwell under the veil of victimization.

We define our childhoods by bad decisions on someone else's end.

We accept a mediocre label for a lifestyle society claims we will repeat.

It's so incredibly false.

Do cruddy things happen along the way? Yes, but they grow us, mend us, change us into people that recognize good & beautiful things as they are without being naive. They give us a deeper understanding of love as we watch some lose it. We hold people closer, even if it takes longer to develop the trust it takes to achieve that closeness. We are hardened and softened and just so many things along the way that make the journey that much richer. We fight to live above the standard of repetition and that's what we will do.

We all come broken & with pasts we aren't always proud of but we do not have to come as mediocre people. We are not products of whatever things happened to us that were beyond our control. We are not even products of the decisions that were directly ours. Sometimes we have to learn the hard way to make a bigger impression, a lasting one that keeps us in line.

When we say yes, let it to be a resounding yes, not a thought of yeah, I hope it works out, in relationships and in general. I hope you cast out all the ways you've allowed bad things to define you & make you feel mediocre to live above it, traveling down a road less traveled because you learned the hard way and are forever changed.

You are not mediocre, let that be what your life speaks.

Day O' Love

Growing up I remember how special my mom made valentine's day for us. She would color everything pink, cut all of our meals into heart shaped treats, & write us love notes.

I even found a drawer full of place-mats she aided us to make for each holiday-- printing our tiny, young, paint-covered hands all over them making turkeys for Thanksgiving, even hearts for this day of love we call valentines. She laminated them so we could keep them forever, which we have. She made fun crafts, sweet cards and filled our heads with kind words. That's what has truly been carried with me onto college when I moved away from home for an extended time frame & it's those kind words that will give me an air of confidence when I am in need of a renewal.

As I've grown older and gotten my fair share of opportunities to spend with elementary aged kids, I see how easily molded they are. I see how powerful words are in their lives, how the interpretations of those words lay a foundation of who they believe they are. I've realized that the kids that don't hear anything at all are the most damaged. They go seeking in all the wrong places for love when they don't get it from those closest to them. Maybe these things are true for all of us.

So, I hope that whoever is close to you knows that they are loved, hears kind words that they will remember always from you, & cherishes moments because they were made special by you.

I hope you tell them reassuring things, every single day, tell them. I hope they are overflowing with joy because of the love you share well with them. Tell them so often that when doubt begins to creep in, it is instantly squashed. They need to hear it from an adult, someone that has been there, someone they know loves them, someone they look up to. They hear their peers opinions all day long, the negative, jealous, immature thoughts of a fellow classmate rings in their ears. But when someone close shares a kind, gentle word, it sticks. It's impossible to get rid of & we need more of that.

Others need you to treat every day like valentine's day simply because you love them.

So, I'm thankful for a sweet momma that always made her love evident to us not just by making holidays special but by making each day unique in its own way.

This life can be rich in love if you'll let it.
Please let it.

Oh, & happy valentine's day.

Or just happy day.

Significant Moments

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 

James 4:14

I realize lately just how short lived things are: college, most relationships, your current roommate situation, the season in life you are amidst. Change is something we can always count on showing up, whether it's invited or not.

Really, I'd argue that nearly everything in life is short-term, quickly fading, & yet, still worth pursuing. There would never be any singular moment of significance if we didn't stop to enjoy the sweet simplicities that cross our paths, even if only for a moment.

So, I hope that wherever you find yourself that it's beautiful, simple, kind, sweet, adventurous. I hope your life is spent enriching the lives around you, making many new friends, & sincerely loving on others the best you can. I hope you do things that are uncomfortable and scary & discover the rewards. I hope you leave places proud of how you've grown, what you've been taught, the things you'll carry on with you as you leave & of the legacy you'll leave behind. I hope you are allowing your journey to unravel in more majestic ways than you could have imagined on your own. I hope that whenever you think you've got it all figured out, it gets shaken up and pleasantly surprises you.

Because most things in life are short-lived, I hope you ride each of them out to their fullest extent.

May each day be full of significant moments.