What I Would Tell My Sixteen Year Old Self Now

I have learned a lot in my 21 years of life. I've learned even more since I was 16. Since it's been almost 6 years, I thought I would do a new post like this. I'd like to think that I've gotten wiser with age and improved in some much needed areas.

To My Sixteen Year Old Self,

1. Don't stress over what you want to do with your life. You're only sixteen. You have a whole life ahead of you. God is the author of your life story and He is the only one who can bring it to completion. 

"And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." Philippians 1:6

2. Don't focus on boys, school, the future, or money. Focus on bettering yourself and who you are in Christ. You are nothing without Him, and you can't do anything until you love God totally and completely. Everything will work out in the end when you listen to what God is asking of you.

"I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5

3. Friends come and go. Don't promise to be "best friends forever" with someone so young because most likely, after high school, you won't be as close. Not always for bad reasons, just different seasons of life for each person. There is a time for everything in life. New seasons, new friends, new growth.

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace." Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

4. Makeup, hair, and nails are material things. God looks at the heart. He doesn't look at outer beauty. Be a good steward of your money and don't spend it on things you really can't afford. Beauty doesn't always have to be about the way you look. Beauty can come from your beautiful soul, your heart, your Christianity, your worth in Christ. 

"Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves." 1 Peter 3:1-5

5. Love God. Love your family. Don't take anyone in your life close to you for granted. Your family loves you more than anyone else on the earth, and God cares and loves about you more than even your family! Your sin does not stop God from loving you. He loves you so much that He was willing to die a painful death for you. To wash your sins away as far as the east is from the west. 

John 3:16
Psalm 103:12
1 Peter 3:18


Thank you so much for reading this!