we are not our past

I wonder if I would recognize the girl who wrote these.
I know she is a part of who I am today,
but I hope I have grown and matured since then.

mistakes

• big 
• little 
• everything in between

heartache

• received
• handed out
• international or unintentional

consequences

• of our own making
• a result of someone else's choices
• pleasant or unpleasant

legacy

• passed down to us 
• what we hold onto
• what we let go of

new beginnings

• the ones we accept
• the ones we refuse
• the ones we dream about

None of us is without regrets, bad decisions, poor choices and their consequences. Some we are responsible for, some we are an innocent recipient of. 

Regardless of how any hurts, struggles, embarrassment, regret or wounds came to you, they don't have to control you. While they are part of your story and always will be, they don't define your worth, they don't have to condemn you to repeat harmful behaviors or thought patterns. 

there is hope

there is a future

there is healing

there is comfort

there is an opportunity for new life

a beautiful life

a better life

a future worth looking forward to

these are found in a healthy relationship with Jesus

that doesn't mean life here on earth will be easy

that doesn't mean all of your troubles will disappear

it does mean you will not face them alone or in your own strength

2 Corinthians 5: 14-21 CSB

 "For the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion, that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.
From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."