I wrote this five years ago…as I prepare to turn 45, I’d add a few more lessons learned in the five years since this was written. I think the most important thing I continue to learn as I age is that life is a process, a journey, and sometimes lessons need to be taught over and over before they are truly learned.
1. You don’t have to be perfect. I know this is one of the ones from 40, but this is a lesson that I keep having to learn. God keeps reminding me that I am being made perfect (whole, complete), but no one is perfect except His son. On this earth mistakes are teachers, and failure is part of the perfecting process, and I am a continual work in progress.
2. It is ok to not be the best, or even good, at everything. Chalk it up to my 3 on the
Enneagram, but my drive to excellent at every single task I do continues to create a lot of stress in my life, especially when my motivation is to look good to others and not always to simply honor God. Ouch.
3. The fate of the world doesn’t lie on my shoulders. I repeat, the fate of the world doesn’t lie on my shoulders. The repetition was for me, not you. If I take a day off, if I sit down and read a book or watch a movie, the world continues to spin because it is God, not I, who set it all in motion and keeps it going.
4. No is a complete sentence. Enough said. Continue reading “Turning 40: Five Things I Wish I Had Known 20 Years Ago”
