15 vs 45

Recently, while threading a needle to sew a button back on my husband's shirt*(see footnote below), I had to laugh for just a moment. With my daughter finishing her freshman year in college, and my son on the verge of marriage, I've become increasingly convinced that life is flying by so quickly. It seems such a short time ago that I was a teenager, too, trying to figure everything out. As I sat in my designated chair, squinting to thread the needle, it occurred to me that I was in a moment that could be a meme:

Threading a needle at 15 -- "Lord, please don't let me stick myself with this needle!"
Threading a needle at 45 -- "Lord, please help me thread this needle!"

When we first venture into life, unaware, uninformed, and unspoiled, our challenges and concerns are all wrapped up in one possible end-of-the-world scenario after another. With so little experience and so much passion, how could we help but feel that way? In our immaturity, with all the beauty of its innocence and inspiration...ironically, with so much before us, we are painfully short-sighted. Every failure seems apocalyptical, every loss feels abysmal, every injury, fatal. Yet, with God's grace and guidance, we survive, thrive, and mature into an entirely different woman.

So, here we are, grown and wise, a little careworn, rather than carefree. Our tendencies have evolved from bravery to complacency, and, instead of being challenged to rein in our passions, we struggle out of our easy chairs to stoke the fire. Where is the spirited young girl? Instead of imagining we are Katniss, we daydream of the safety of the Dowager Countess Grantham, trading the battlefield for the tea tray...

The truth is, we mistake the effects of maturity--or misuse them. Peace is degraded to complacency, and it should not be so. Instead of writing the closing chapters, turn the page and begin a new challenge. If the pen is more powerful than the sword, then you, in your maturity and wisdom, are truly more capable now, than when you began, of chasing that old dream of yours.

Lost opportunities are like missed trains. Regretting them doesn't get you anywhere -- the best thing you can do is to be sure you grab the next one!

Don't lose hope, now, when you're better equipped than ever to dust off the traces of disappointment and pursue your purpose. Get back into the habit of dreaming again. Get a new journal and begin planning. Get going!

*footnote: Has anyone else discovered the completely backward correlation between the cost/quality of a piece of clothing and the substandard manner in which the buttons are attached? This is another article entirely...our lack of attention to detail can be our own "undoing."