I met my younger self for coffee today…

I met my younger self for coffee at 7:00. 

She was early. 

I was early. 

My hair had Lange-waver curls. 

Though her hair was brushed, the evidence of fatigue was evident upon her face.  

I had on jeans and a feminine top. 

She wore clothes that were too tight for her tiny frame. 

She looks at me in disbelief, as tears of hope and bewilderment escape her eyes. 

I tell her she’s okay, to feel all of those feelings. 

Let them roll wave after wave within and out of her. 

It all is so dang hard right now. It really is. So hard. 

We sat for a while. 

I listened, she talked and wept. 

We laughed. I cried, too. 

I reached for her hands and held them tightly in mine and looked her straight in the eyes and told her: you’re going to be okay. 

I told her God is with and within her. 

She’s only known Him a few months, and it seems like everything good is falling apart. 

I listened and responded with deep love and empathy. Validating every heartbreak. 

There in that corner of the cafe, I saw it in her eyes she needed to be reminded of hope. That in this chaos and pain, something will matter one day.

I told her every hardship has helped us be who I am today. It’s hard and heavy, but there will be beauty from all of these ashes. And it will bring God glory and encourage others in ways she never dreamed. 

I told her when it feels too much, to keep fixing her eyes back upon Jesus. (Isaiah 26:3)

In order for renovation to occur, what’s broken must be deconstructed and removed. 

Keep holding on to Christ. Keep looking for light. Don’t shrink, stop holding back. Follow those scary brave nudges upon her heart and do the hard things. 

Be lovely and loved, and to live loved - even in the hard things she has yet to walk through - the Lord will waste no single crumb. 

“When they had all had enough, He said to His disciples, Gather up now the fragments (the broken pieces that are left over), so that nothing may be lost and wasted.” John 6:12 AMPC

I hug her tight with a hug that she feels in her bones. We won’t meet again for another 25 years. 

But each day perhaps she will remember the person the Lord allowed her a glimpse to see. 

Hope and peace young single-mama me.

Love (ahem) slightly older, Amy

Original credit of this poetic prompt “I met my younger self for coffee today” is by poet @jennaececelia 

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#hopewhenitsheavy #hopewhenitsheavybook