Dear Twenty-Something,

Since I can’t sit and have coffee with you, I’ll put a little bit of wisdom and sound counsel others have shared with me into a letter of love.

Connect to God.  Every minute of every day.  Like your phone needs constant connection to a network, you need connection to your Source of power.  Include Him in your thoughts, tasks, and decisions, making every act one of worship.  Recharging occurs with concentrated time in His presence, meditating on His word. This keeps you grounded on truth and your identity as His, deeply loved and worth dying for.

Get sleep-don’t evaluate anyone or anything when you’re exhausted. Most periods of self-loathing come from decisions made when we’re tired.  When rested, we are able to maximize our God-given gifts to serve others and glorify Him in all we do.

Humility-you’re never going to have it all together so quit striving to be enough and just be in Him.  It’s so liberating to stop trying so hard.  Pride keeps us beating ourselves up to be more, do more, live up to the world’s standards.  Humility says thank you for what I am and what I have now. You are my portion, Lord.

Expectations-don’t let the culture tell you what your friendships, marriage, family, and life should look like to be happy.  Choose to be satisfied now.  Draw the line in each area of your life where enough is enough.  How many friends do you need to be happy?  What if that number is smaller?  Dare to shrink your social media world.  Can you be satisfied with your possessions? Draw a line and say, “I’m good.”

But really, connection to Him is so important, it should be the only thing.  Choose Him, every day, every moment.  Let nothing else get in the way.  Be desperate for Him; if you’re not, ask for the hunger for Him.  Ask to like Him, to want Him, to recognize your need for Him.  Then seek Him with ALL your heart, soul, mind, and strength, before you pick up your phone each day.  It’s work at first: 5 min, 10 min, 30 min…and then suddenly, you’re addicted to Him and there’s no going back.  You will never be the same.

With Love, Your Sister in Christ,

Stephanie Fevergeon