Getting older is harder on the body but so much easier on the soul.

I don’t recover from days of little sleep as easily, I can’t fit back into my “skinny” jeans by just running and eating well for a week, I require two to three cups of coffee instead of just one and a nice, quiet dinner out with the hubs sounds way better than any concert or club.
But, I am totally ok with all of that stuff (well, minus the metabolism shift!). As a trade-off, I am much calmer and much less stressed and anxious. I don’t beat myself up all the time for not being perfect because I have truly come to realize that no one is. I don’t freak out if someone sees me out without make-up on because I just don’t care about their opinion like I used to and I kinda feel like it helps show my girlfriends that I don’t have it all together either. I don’t stress about the future or my career because I have seen how God has directed my path regardless of how much I worried about it.
Most amazingly, I am stunned by how I continue to grow in my relationship with the Lord. I think there was a part of twenty year old me that worried there was nothing more to learn. I had read the whole Bible, memorized a bunch of scripture and been studying, reading and teaching it since I was 14. What more could there be? Stupid twenty year old me had no idea what I was in for. Just in the last year I have come face to face with my own wretchedness and God’s grace-filled, loving-kindness anew. I am in awe of the facets of the gospel I have yet to uncover and look forward to how thirty year old me will be transformed by this new understanding of Grace.
To my twenty year old friends: Don’t fear getting older. It is so wonderful and filled with much more peace and much less angst than your twenties. Try to relax, focus on God’s already given approval instead of that of others and receive peace in knowing HE’S GOT THIS.