From the archives: A Letter to My Seventeen-Year-Old Self
Written Nov. 19, 2011 in the post , "I Can't Whisper Either".
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------So, I write this to my 17 year old self:
Yessenia,
You think your parents are the ones who need transformation. While that may be true, they are not the only ones who need it, you need it, your life depends on it.
Sorry to break it to you, but you are not able to whisper and your reasoning will make not sense to others, just like your family. You will become like your mother in that your faithfulness to those whom you love will bring a bittersweet, but rewarding pain, and your humor will be sprinkled with some of your dad's wittiness.
There will come a time where fighting with your parents, will for the most part, cease. There will come a time where you will view your family with a new set of eyes, but first...
...stop ignoring what your heart keeps telling you. Stop kidding yourself. Stop pretending. Stop seeking out confusion to ease your weary soul. Stop tuning out your mother's prayers, and stop pretending she is not praying them. Stop trying to run from the Lord. Stop willing yourself into sin. Stop talking yourself into death.
Stop.
You were meant to live.
From the beginning of time, you were created to drink deep from the well-spring of life.
Now, turn! Turn, from where you are heading. Run; go unto the Father, find your place there. That is where you belong. Place your security in the family of God. Stand strong as a daughter of the Most High.
Also, stop dying your hair to defy authority and to stick-it to peoples opinions. What kind of reasoning is that?! Plus, your natural dirty blonde/light brown, highlighted in the summer hair is beautiful, even if your mom is the only one who tells you so.
Love,
Your 21 year old self.
Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.**
Proofread and slightly modified July, 2012
