Today I turn 24.
Yesterday morning I woke up an hour before my alarm and laid in bed thinking about the dream I'd just had about an ice cream sandwich meme (??? I dunno, I tried looking it up and it doesn't exist. But it was funny.), what strain of flu shot I'm getting today (yesss, on my birthday. I know.🙃), and the fact that on my next birthday I'll be 25... a quarter of a century.
This has been such a strange year, and I know I'm not the first person to tell you that. You probably don't even need anyone to tell you that because you already know it for yourself, let's be real.
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| August 2020. |
Since the start of 2020, life has seemed to be a wild ride, moreso than usual. The joys have been more joyful, and the trials have seemed to last longer than they normally do. Hardly anything can be planned further than a week in advance, and the concept of "going with the flow" has been one that I've had to accept more than I want to.
It's been hard for me to blog because all I can often think of writing is "Quarantine Tips + Tricks" parts three, four, five, and probably six. At the beginning of the year I made a goal for myself to put out two posts each month, but I've been lucky if I put out one every two months.🤪 And honestly this post hardly even existed except for the fact that I've put up birthday posts since I turned twenty, and I'm nothing if not consistent, so here we are.
If there's one lesson I've learned while being twenty-three, it's to take things one day at a time.
I'm not great at this, let me lead with that. I long to be in control at any given moment; I'm a planner so I want to know today what I'm going to be doing at twenty-five and exactly what my life will be looking like then. I've preached the "one day at a time" mantra to too many people in 2020 before realizing that I wasn't taking it seriously in my own heart, even while I thought I was.
The Bible talks about taking things day by day. Matthew 6:34 says,
"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own troubles."
Every day is going to have its own issues, its own hang-ups, its own frustrations. And yet, I would take things a week at a time thinking, 'I feel like I'm doing better today, I'm handling things well.' But when I felt tired and weary and anxious the next day, I would frustratingly think 'You were doing better this week!'
I would actually say 'this week' in my mind. While telling people that I think it's so important to take things day by day. Cue internal facepalm.
Practice what you preach, right?
So I'm trying to get better at this. I wake up each morning and assess how I'm feeling that day. One day at a time.
'Do I feel better? Do I feel anxious? Am I going to need more grace today - for myself and others?' That's another good one.
When I would think 'I thought I was doing better this week!' what I was really doing was giving myself grace in a weekly dose. If I wasn't doing as well on Wednesday as I thought I had been on Monday, that was it for the week. Because, y'know, I thought I was 'doing better', whatever that's supposed to mean during a pandemic.🥴
Imagine if God did that with us, with me. Gave me grace in a weekly dose and if I messed that up then, NOPE, that was it until next Monday! No. He gives grace upon grace upon grace on a daily basis because He knows that each day is going to have its own share of troubles that I need His help and His grace for.
Those are the top two lessons and reminders that I'm carrying with me through this pandemic and as I walk into my twenty-fifth year of life.
🥳
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