Skeletons

Skeletons...we've all got at least one or two hiding in the closet, some seem scarier than others, but they're there nonetheless. Soon I'll be turning the big 2-5...dun, dun, dun... and I'll be honest and say that I have a nice menagerie of my own skeletons that not even those closest to me know about, things I've done/said/thought in the past that I know God has forgiven me for, but it's still seared into my memory about what I fell into. But despite how this may have begun, I wrote this to be more of an encouragement than anything. You see, one of my mottos is "Life's too short to have regrets" - now I'm not talking about sky diving or things like that, but what I'm talking about is sin. That little nasty thing that we try to excuse, tolerate, avoid, but still somehow we allow it to stay in our lives. Some people's skeletons come in the shapes of what they've drank, smoked, or done with someone... and God can definitely restore them and has already forgiven them if they just accept that, but the rest of this post is for those who haven't fallen into those things yet.

As I mentioned, I'm turning 25, and it dawned on me the other day, that I'll be 25... never smoked, drank alcohol, been kissed, asked out, and the list can go on. Now, I'm not wanting to seem legalistic, especially on the alcohol front, I have my own reasons other than just the command to "not be drunk with wine" to keep me from doing that. But the others, God has just been so faithful in keeping me from those situations - even though sometimes I wanted to have that temptation in some rebellious way. I'm writing this for all of you out there, who maybe feel like I have at different points in my life where I felt like God is almost making me miss out. I see the pictures, attend the weddings, see the babies and I won't lie that sometimes I've questioned why God has kept some of those things from me. I watch the chick flicks and see the "happily ever after" and wonder when it's coming for me... and then it hits me... 1) God knew what His plan was for me (and you) before I was born and 2) I'm not "broken" and nor should I try and fix the "problem". I don't need to go and "live life", I don't need to throw myself at whoever will give me 5 minutes attention because the bottom line is that I have a loving Father and Savior who loves me so ridiculously much that I can't bear to miss out on what He has made me to do because I'm pursuing what I think I'm "supposed" to do or have. I can state with a clear conscience to the girls I disciple that it's possible to live a life of purity and that you don't want to sell out to what Hollywood or even our friends say is the "norm" and miss out on knowing God in some of the coolest ways. Now, I'm not saying this to pat myself on the back, because it's seriously by the grace of God that He's kept me from these things... because seriously I've wanted the normal high school/college/and now early adult existence, but again and again, He continues to reinforce what has become my theme verse for life that "His ways are not our ways".

So my friends, take heart... be still, live blamelessly, and remember we already have enough skeletons... God's plan for you is so much more stellarly awesome that you could ever dream or imagine if you just SEEK HIM FIRST and stand strong because again, life's too short to have regrets.