About 20 Years Ago

(me today)


















Twenty years ago I was ten years old.

At 10 years old
I was in 5th grade,
read voraciously,
and had 2 "best friends" who were arch rivals.

At 10 years old
I had my own bedroom,
a four poster bed with white eyelet canopy
pale pink walls and Rose colored carpet I chose myself.

At 10 years old
I loved Bunny Rabbits,
collected porcelain dolls,
and perfected the art of stacking clutter
(which is a skill I utilize almost daily 20 years later).

At 10 years old
I began to fall in love with creating art;
my mom and I took a college Water Color class together,
and I had my first really difficult and most helpful critique.

At 10 years old
my dad would take me to work with him,
my brother and I spent hours exploring the creek together,
my little sister would sit quiet as a mouse in my room,
and my mom would sit on my bed and listen to me talk.

At 10 years old
I knew I wanted to be a mom someday,
I practiced on my brother and sister,
and would pray for my future husband.

At 10 years old
I never imagined
that my husband would be so handsome,
so gracious, kind, firm, and full of integrity,
and that I would love him more than life.

At 10 years old
I never imagined
that 30 would find me in Idaho,
raising six children,
and sprouting gray hair.

At 10 years old
I never imagined
the children that would bless my life;
3 boys, 3 girls, and smiles times a million.

At 10 years old I was a young and innocent girl.
I loved life and was full of the stuff life is made of.
I played hard;
I learned to appreciate work;
and I knew how to dream.

At 10 I knew little about the world,
but thought the world of home.


At 10 I didn't know what the future would hold,
but was full of hope for the unknown.

At 10 I didn't know much doctrine or theology,
but I knew Jesus loved me.



In fact, as I look back 20 years ago and then come back to the present, I realize that many things have changed.
The girl is now a woman, a wife, and mother.
Some hobbies (such as collecting dolls) I have disposed of,
while other hobbies have blossomed into cherished creative outlet and even skill.
I don't have Rose colored carpet anymore, but I do still read.
I don't have a bunny rabbit, but I still stack my clutter.
I imagine, work, and dream, and love; I smile a lot, but could do to laugh more often.

Slowly I'm learning about doctrine and theology, but in my learning I have come realize that no matter whether 20 years pass, or 25; 40, 80, or 100, there is something I grasped at age 10 that is a timeless truth worth holding onto forever.

A snippet of glory that bathes me head to toe in the light of HIM from the time before there was time, to the day when time shall come to an end.
And that light casts its wondrous ray out into the After-time when all will be made perfect.

This thing I know for sure:



Jesus loves me.



Be HIS, beloved, for He loves you too.




Romans 5: 7-11

^"7For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

⁸But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

⁹Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

¹⁰For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

¹¹And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement."