A Promise Breaker

Do you keep all the promises you made to yourself ? I don’t. While going through a pile of childhood memorabilia I ran across a 10 year old list of “Things I’ll Never Do When I’m [An Adult]” I was a idealist 13 year old and a child of a missionary too, remember that. 

(some of) The Things I’ll Never Do

Say bad words. 

Wear high heels

Talk bad about people

Flirt with boys

Drive fast

Listen to (bad) music 

Be cliquey 

Be snobby 

Drive anything but a GMC [vehicle].

Be ashamed of my religion

Dress immodestly 

Have a boyfriend 

Be on my phone a lot 

Wear expensive clothes 

Be proud 

Be unkind

I broke all but one or two of those righteous idealism’s in a matter of a year or two and I never quite made it to adulthood with even one of those goals to my name. And. I survived growing up. And.  I survived being a teenager. And. Here I am. I didn’t make too many massive irreversible mistakes. And in fact, I might even say I’m a better person for having done most of these things. Committing each “sin” made me realize either why it’s not so bad or why it’s something I don’t feel comfortable doing l, and has helped me grow and understand how I should live and how God wants me to live. No, I’m not perfect, but I have learned a lot. And yes, I’m a person who, unfortunately, learns from my own mistakes and not from other people’s. 

For one thing, it didn’t take long til I came to my senses and realized FORD was a lot better than any Chevy product. Much later, I adopted and, even later, finally conquered the disgusting habit of swearing and today it’s not really something I deal with much. I wear high heels (though not impossibly so), I drive fast (but not when there’s a possibility of moose hiding on the roadway in the darkness). I’ve spent too much time listening to, thinking about and talking about popular secular song lyrics and melodies and it’s taken too long for me to understand that a lot of these don’t do anything (good) for me. I wear visible signs of my beliefs and that’s been something I’ve wrestled with too. I don’t like standing out and being so different from other people and, sadly, I’ve been ashamed of my beliefs. Time and different happenings in my life have contrived to  change this and teach me to treasure these outward symbols of my love for God. They are a treasure: a tattoo, not a brand. I’ve been a proud person, a snobby person, and unkind person; not sure I’ve conquered any of these. I have spent time on my phone that I should have spent connecting with the people around me. I did flirt with a boy once and that turned out well for me; he’s now my husband and now I can flirt with him every day! 

I don’t think I’ve covered everything on that list yet but that’s okay. This isn’t confession time nor is this to say I’m perfect. It’s just musings, ways I’ve grown and changed in the last 10 years. It’s fun to look back over time and see how life has changed me. It hasn’t all been easy and in fact quite the opposite at different times, but I’m alive and happy and my life is quite beautiful.