25 Years of Wisdom

(Because who can trust what they thought when they were an 8th grader.....?)

This has been working its way to my fingertips for months now. I have been anticipating the 25th anniversary of the best day EVER for awhile. In honor (… of myself…..) of the occasion these are some things I have been waiting to put out there. I apologize if you've read any of it somewhere else or if it sounds really cliché… I promise it came from my head!

I can't blame who I am today on my parents…. maybe who I was 10 years ago, but not today.

It is the hardest thing to realize that you have to take responsibility for yourself… your personality….habits… tendencies….choices etc. It is even harder to forgive the things and people that made you that way. I think this is because we can't decide whether to forgive them or thank them.

God isn't silent. I can look back and point out the exact times in my life when He was screaming for my attention. I just didn't realize it then. Now, I hear him everyday and He rarely has to raise his voice.

I do not follow a specific religion. I understand that Christ came to end religion.

Following Christ will (not can...but will) cause you to break a lot of rules. Other people's.... but also the ones that you have had set in your heart and your mind since you were born. I have learned to tell the difference between compromising my faith and following his will.

I've found that people neither need nor want your opinions and ideas, but they do need and want Christ's love. That really is the only thing of value that I have to offer.

I may "always be in a relationship" as some like to complain, um I mean point out... but I never take them lightly and in each one I can always say I am true to myself in my speech as well as my actions. What does that say about those who are "always single" but play with or even dismiss other people's (and their own) feelings.

Some friendships will not last forever. I have finally learned what being a friend DOES NOT include. There are too many to list.

I can now see who will be here with me for the next 25 years and who won't and I happily accept it.

The last, but certainly not the least, bit I would like to share is actually best expressed in a song. Its a fairly new one from Rascal Flatts. Anyway, it describes one of the truest parts of my life better than I could with my own words:

'Here'

There's a place I've been looking for
That took me in and out of buildings
Behind windows, walls and doors

And I thought I found it a couple times
Even settled down
And I'd hand around just long enough
To find my way back out
I know now the place that I was trying to reach
Was you, right here in front of me

And I wouldn't change a thing
I'd walk right back through the rain
Back to every broken heart
On the day that it was breaking
And I'd relive all the years
And be thankful for the tears
I've cried with every stumbled step
That led to you and got me here, right here

It's amazing what I let my heart go through
To get me where it got me
In this moment here with you
And it passed me by, God knows how many times
I was so caught up in holding what I never thought I'd find
I know now, there's a million roads I had to take
To get me in your arms this way

In a love I never thought I'd get to get to here
And if that's the road God made me take to be with you

Then I wouldn't change a thing
I'd walk right back through the rain
Back to every broken heart
On the day that it was breaking
And I'd relive all the years
And be thankful for the tears
I've cried with every stumbled step
That led to you and got me here