Dear You

This year for my nieces and nephews birthdays I'm going to try and write them each a letter. Since this idea just arrived in my brain I have a bit of catching up to do, but today is the birthday of my oldest niece. Thus she gets the privilege of the first letter and she also has the honor of being the one who made me an aunt in the first place.

Dear Niece,

You are turning 20 today. How in the world did you get to be so grown up? You've got the two in front of the zero in your age which means you have kissed the teen years good bye forever. I remember when that happened to me. I felt so old and yet not ready to be old.

My freshmen year of college had just faded into the distance. The year where you feel so grown up and so little all at the same time. Twenty suddenly felt so fresh and full of prospect and hope.And it was a grand and not so grand year. A year marked by death and grieving.A year of laughter with others and happiness for others.

On the outside twenty had the ups and downs of life and on the inside I fought the battle of achieving spiritual maturity.

Now 20 seems pretty young and tiny in comparison to life now. I'm pretty sure its the graduating from college thing. Strangely its the being out of college feeling that makes you suddenly really start to grow up. To think your own thoughts. To stand on your feet. To make your own decisions. To just live life.

If you were to read my journal from the year I was 20 you would see desperateness. Not wanting to be emotional. Not wanting to be swept away by frivolous ideas. Wanting to be holy. Desperately wanting to be free of myself.

I didn't attain that freedom that year and I still haven't. Instead of I've slowly started the process of understanding there is grace and strength for every detail of our lives.

I want to tell you on your 20th birthday that life will be nothing, but loveliness from here on out. I can't promise you happiness, but I can promise you that if you trust in the faithfulness of God you will have joy. Your going to learn a lot of new things this year and I'm going to learn some things too. I just don't know what, but that is all part of the adventure eh?

Happy Birthday to you. You the person who makes me jealous for your talent of writing fabulous fiction. You who finds the cute clothes. You who never fails to encourage me. Your the best.

Love,
Aunt Beth