Dear One,

You’ve been through a lot in your lifetime.  Sorrow has touched your heart at times and has brought you to your knees, but you don’t stay down for long.  That’s what I love about you.  No matter what you are faced with, you choose not to be the victim.  Instead, you are a survivor!

You have encountered those that have mistreated you time and time again.  Yet, another chance is given to those individuals not because you wish for more ill treatment.  No, instead, you see the good in that person even when they don’t see or exhibit that good with their behavior and actions.  You see past the hurt and pain they have caused, and you hold out hope that things will change for the better.  You do not want to give up on people, and so you hold on.  No matter what, you hold on, probably longer than you should in some cases, to hope.  A hope for a brighter future, a better life, a happily ever after.  It doesn’t have to only be something that happens in fairy tales, you tell yourself.  You seek it out.  You truly want your happily ever after. The riding off into the sunset together kind of happiness.

Even when life happens and a wrench is thrown into your plans, you keep on trucking.  Remaining focused is the key.  Not dwelling on the bump in the road or the shattered dreams, yet picking up as many pieces that you can fit into your arms, you carry them on down the road to build upon and slowly put back together.  Even still, the jagged pieces aren’t tossed aside, they are loved, tended to, and nurtured, as you do for others along your path in life as well.

You have flaws just like the rest of the world, but here’s the thing.  Your flaws do not define you!  (Your daughter would be proud that you used and built upon Damion Fizzy’s quote “Your flaws don’t define you” in this post.)  They are just a part of what makes you the wonderful person that you are.  Feeling flawed, battered, bruised, and tossed aside at times, you are still not those things.  None of that defines who you are deep within your heart down to the very core of your being.

Who are you?  YOU are a child of God.  You are deeply loved by Our Heavenly Father.  He took great care when he developed every single thing about you that makes you uniquely yourself.  God does not make mistakes so rest assured that you are exactly the way God wanted you to be.  And … you are pre-approved by the only one that really matters.  Your Master, Your Maker, Your Savior!

Dear one, you don’t have to strive to get from man what GOD freely gives you!!  You have His approval, His love, His validation, His promise that He will never leave you nor forsake you.  Others may come and go, but Your Heavenly Father will NEVER leave your side.  People can steal from you material possessions, but no one can EVER steal the love you have in your heart or the love that flows freely from your Heavenly Father and from your children directly to you!  Those are the only things that truly matter in this life.  And you’ve recognized this early on.  You don’t base your worth on material things.  You know that real wealth is not measured by anything you can buy.  To be wealthy is to know love, true love, and have the ability to feel it, express it, and share it with others.

When once anxiety would consume you, now you have realized that you are not in control of the universe and are okay with that.  While we would like things to be a certain way, they won’t always be. With this knowledge, you have been able to let a lot of things go.  Thus, you have relieved some of the weight of the world that you carried on your shoulders for so long.  The weight that you placed there or felt was placed by others.  How freeing to realize that God has the final say in how things work out, and no matter what, He sees the bigger picture when we are not able to do so presently.

You have been able to do exactly what the scripture says.  When you don’t know what to do, you just be still, sweet one … and know that HE is God!  He will work it out.  Just place it all into His very capable hands and watch Him work!

You have grown, sweetheart.  It has been a pleasure reflecting back on just how far you have come.

I love you.

Me

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A Letter To The Past Me was inspired by the prompt phrase on

Karen’s Tuesday At Ten.

Be sure to join us each Tuesday and link up your post!