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Please excuse my one-day-late post. Internet service was down for most of the day yesterday in the office, and I'm just now getting a chance to post this!
On Monday, I got a postcard in the mail from myself. No, I’m really not that desperate for mail, and no I don’t send myself flowers, too. :) The card was from five years ago on the day before my college graduation. As I read, I remembered…. We had been given the postcards at rehearsal and encouraged to write a quick note to our future selves just for fun. Then the alumni office would hang on to them and mail them to us five years later as a reminder to return to campus for our first class reunion.
What fun to get that blast from the past! My card starts out, "Hi, me five years from now! I hope my college bills are paid off." (Boy, was I overly optimistic.) Then I went on to say I hoped I’d kept in touch with my good friends and if not to give them a call or send an email right away. Finally I said that whatever I’d been doing, I hoped that my experiences had drawn me closer to God.
That’s it. Just a short little note that made my day and made me think. I stood in my kitchen after reading it and quickly evaluated my life in the past five years. No, I haven’t paid off my school bills, but I’m making good progress. Yes, I’ve kept in pretty good touch with my closest friends. And best of all, yes my experiences have drawn me much closer to God. Moving back home at first…reestablishing myself as an adult in my church and community…changing jobs six times in the first three years until finally getting my dream job here at Barbour…finding the love of my life and getting married…helping my husband search for a good job and the right home for us…learning what commitment and love really are…and now beginning to start a family. Yes, all these things have drawn me closer to God, teaching me to depend on Him because I just can’t do life without Him. I try sometimes, and the results are never good. Again and again I learn to wait and trust and lean on Him because His love and plans for me are so much better than anything I can find on my own.
So, two out of three goals ain’t bad! :) If you were to pen a note to your future self, what would you say? What do you hope to have accomplished or learned in the next several years?
2 comments:
I actually did something similar in the first writing class I took. The instructor had us write out our five-year writing goals on an index card. I was a newbie writer and quite optimistic in wanting to be published with two different publishers and make a certain amount of money from my writing. I recently found that card and realized I'd met my goal (which I'd forgotten about) in four years rather than five.
I think we often limit ourselves with our human minds when God's plans for us are so much more than we can possibly imagine.
www.vickiemcdonoough.com
Good blog JoAnne. I've never written down my goals and dreams like this but I celebrated my 24th wedding anniversary yesterday and last night I sat on the porch of my writing cottage and reflected on those years. God is awesome and always at work in my life. I've met several goals in those 24 years. I have two beautiful children, four published works and a husband who still loves me above anything else on this earth even after all this time. As your post pointed out, we are blessed. Thank you for sharing!
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