My dear twenties,
In seven days I will celebrate the start of my last year with you. 29. My farewell year to a decade well spent. I’ll have you know I’ve liked you a lot more than the teens. You are the decade that got rid of acne, gave me a job that didn’t come with an apron, and taught me how to spread my wings and fly away from home. You introduced me to love, turned me into a bride, and washed away the insecurities of adolescence with the affection of a man I never deserved.
You are the decade of burnt dinners, tiny apartments, and tender beginnings. The decade that laid a little body into my arms and in one swift moment made me a mother for life. Where adolescence taught me to be strong because I have not, you taught me to be strong because I have. You tutored me with kindness instead of pain. With blessings that made me ache to be better than I am. No matter what the future brings, I will remember you as the decade that gave me the gifts that would come to define my life and my legacy.
My dear twenties, you have been merciful to me. A decade of joy, lavish with grace. I used to view you as the ticking-clock decade, the race-to-the-deadline decade…in which case I would have just one more year to run a marathon, write a novel, and finish having children! But I know better now. Your goal has never been for me to gather accomplishments and pin them to my chest before I’m thirty. Because you are not the finish line, but the starting line. If childhood and adolescence is the “ready” and “set,” you are the gunshot decade that gives us a swift kick in the pants and tells us to “Go!” Take your life and your blessings, and live! Put wings to your dreams, and courage to your feet, and don’t be so afraid to stumble along the way. Thank you, dear twenties. I look forward to one last year with you!
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Beautiful. Every word resonates so deeply as I near the same corner 🙂 My college girls need this perspective too, thanks for sharing!
The Lord’s richest blessings on your last year of this decade!!
Thanks for sharing! I am just two months ahead of you and couldn’t have put it better myself! What wonderful blessings God has given us in our families. My family was the most precious thing to me, and I went to college locally to be near my parents. At 22, my Dad lost his battle with Pancreatic Cancer and my faith was rocked to its core. Six years from that day, I labored to bring our son into the world, named after his grandpa and he joined us a few hours later. God has made me aware that he’s given me a husband that embodies so many of the qualities that I loved in my Dad, a warm cozy home and a family that looks a lot like the one that was shattered. And I found the wonderful, loving God that I thought had forgotten- but actually was knitting together every detail that I missed over that time. Thank you for sharing such honest truths with us on your journey. It is a breath of fresh air! May God bless you now and in the next decade! Amy
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Happy Birthday! Enjoy the last of this great decade and anticipate with enthusiasm the beginning of another great decade 🙂 ~Blessings~
Happy birthday!!! I am turning 30 one month from today!! I can definitely relate to everything you said. I pray that some day I can help my kids to know how much God loves them, and that they wouldn’t have such a rough teenage decade like I did. Great post, thanks so much!
I’m a little late with this but I just have to say how much I’ve enjoyed this! I turned 30 recently and this really inspired me – I love your positive perspective! 🙂