Keep Perspective and Keep Going


A bad mood or a bad day does not mean you are bad or life is bad. Keep perspective and keep going.

I don't think I've ever had a more popular tweet than that one. I don't say that to brag. I say that because I realized those words struck a chord. I realized I hit a nerve.

I realized we aren't as put together as we try to seem. We know in our minds that what we see on Instagram isn't always reality, but do our hearts understand that? We all go through winters, we all go through storms, we all go through dark, hard nights.

Why is that so hard to remember? Why is my instinct to feel utterly alone when the bad things come? Why do I feel like I'm the only one struggling, the only one hurting, the only one coming up short?

Oh, dear, sweet self, remember these things:

You may feel abandoned and alone, but you aren't. You aren't. You are beloved. You are a child of the King, wrapped in His loving arms that have never and will never abandon you.

You may feel off, you may feel like things just aren't right, you may feel lost. Don't dismiss those feelings like they're pathetic or ridiculous. Take them, sit with them, process them. The path is through them, not around them. Ignoring them won't help you. Take those feelings and try to put words to them. It will be messy and tangled, but it will help. Take those words, and surrender them. Tell your loving, faithful Father what hurts. Tell Him what's hard. Tell Him what has you torn up and frustrated. Work through it all. You will get through it all.

You may feel like the speed of things is just wrong. Friendships seem stuck on the surface and all you want is just one true person to sit across from and be real with, just one person who will be there every single day without fail. Your career path seems stuck at a dead-end and all you want to be full-time, to have a real job again, to have cushion back in your bank account, to have security. You want to be independent and self-sufficient and successful, but you're living back at home and your money's running low and you just can't get there yet.

Dear one, the timing of things isn't wrong. In your head, it seems that way. Your plan wouldn't be this one. But remember, always remember, your plan is never the best one. His is. Trust that. Haven't you learned that time and time again? Remember that now. He knows. You don't. Trust. Trust when it's hard. Trust when it's slow. Trust when you're stuck. Trust at the dead-ends. Trust.

Nobody has ever said your twenties are a cake walk. They have said they're the best years of your life. I know, I know, it doesn't always feel like that. But, love, these years are full of goodness. Yes, struggle too, but so much growth and so much goodness.

There will be dark nights, but there will be radiant sunrises you never expected. There will be winters, but there will be springs that come slowly as bloom by bloom pushes through the dirt until new life is all around. These things will happen in your soul too-- sunrises and new life and bright mornings and sweet, sweet grace in the middle of it all.

Dear, sweet self, keep perspective. Keep going.