love yourself this Valentines Day

It seems where ever I turn these days I find myself among young adult women.  My daughters, the young moms I am the mentor mom to at church and others beautiful ones that God has placed in my path.

My conversations with them remind me of the multiple demands and roles that they are asked to fill.  And about the high (many times unreasonable) expectations that we as a society place on them and they as seekers to live up to it all, place on themselves.

It doesn't seem that long ago that I was swimming those dangerous waters myself.

Looking back, while there are many things I would have done differently, I know I did my best at the time with the tools in my arsenal that I had to work with.  While I made my share of mistakes, I did a few things right as well.   This is true of all of us.

Even if you read every parenting book on the shelf you are never quite prepared for the role of mother.  Partly because our children don't read the books and behave accordingly, but also because we were children in an imperfect world and we bring to the role of parent a whole lot of built up baggage.

And it is very difficult not to unpack that baggage with our children. But thankfully, they are remarkably resilient.

If I could tell a young woman anything at all about this time in your life it would be to let go of the expectation of perfection.  No one, absolutely no one, except Jesus himself, will achieve it.  Love yourself.  Not in the selfish way the world tells you to, but in the way that a loving Father tells you to.

Acknowledge that you are beautiful, you are cherished, you are special, you are worthy, you are adored simply because you were created to be that way.  Love those in your sphere of influence with those same qualities and allow God to turn the scraps of baggage you've been carrying around into a thing of beauty.   Whether you are eight or 80, it's never too late.

Happy Valentines Day!

xo, Patty