What I Wish I Knew In My 20's

[Preface: Well, I have a feeling that the title of this blog, alone, has made some older and much-wiser women roll their eyes. 
So please receive this blog as a simple, humble and far-from-perfect reflection from a girl who still has a LOT to learn.]

I just recently turned 30.
The day after my birthday, I was sitting on an airplane and decided it would be a fun exercise to list 20 lessons from my 20's - the first ones that came to mind.
I thought I would share them.
Then I would love it if you shared some of your own! So comment below. (I love comments.)

In my 20's I learned some lessons like ...
1. How to pay a bill on time (and the consequence of the opposite)
2. What a health insurance deductible means
3. Eating a McDonalds McGriddle right before running isn't a good idea.
4. As long as I have cereal, milk, peanut butter and bread in my kitchen, I can go weeks without grocery shopping.
5. How to write a resume
6. My parents really are always right.
7. College is a marvelous, fun, life-shaping bubble. The real world bursts it. But that's a good thing.
8. How to use an iPhone
9. Living in a country where you don't know the language is a fast-track to humility.
10. Road rage never gets me anywhere, faster (a lesson I am still learning).


Then, I learned some deeper lessons like ...
11. When someone you love passes away, a lot of things that used to be important aren't anymore.
12. A five-year plan needs to be written in pencil, on something easily disposable.
13. Asking questions and listening - two rare skills to find and ones I want to practice more.
14. Rejection and failure are really big fears of mine.
15. So much of my issues root in not forgiving people.
16. Being married is a beautiful gift but doesn't complete me.
17. The church is a family, and families can be messy.
18. Saying "no" to good things doesn't make me a bad person. In fact, sometimes it makes me a better person. (Just ask my husband:))
19. People-pleasing is like running on a treadmill - it gets me no where and leaves me exhausted.
20. Grace. It's everything.

I finished the list, got off the plane, and then headed out to the lake where I was going to celebrate my birthday with some of my most-cherished friends.

I love the lake. I grew up going to the lake every summer. My girlfriends and I sat out on the porch, close to the water.
It was a warm July night.
The summer breeze stirred up the smell of water and sunscreen.
And I guess the nostalgia of the lake made me sappy.
Well, let's get real. I'm just a sappy kinda girl.

So I asked them the sappy question I had asked myself on the plane.
"What are some of the lessons you learned in your 20's?"
We laughed at some of the comments, got serious with others.

And then one of my friends said one I really liked.
She said, "I learned towards the end of my 20's that the more I know, the more I don't know."

Yes. Love that. Wish I really believed that in my 20's.
I wasted so many years pretending I knew, feeling like I should know or striving to know it ALL!
When one of the most beautiful things about life is that I never will.

Just when I think I've got life mastered, I turn an unknown corner.
Just when I think I've grasped all there is to know about friendships, marriage, my job ... life hands me an experience that's like a new, crisp textbook, never read.

I love that about life - there's always something more to learn.

And I love that even more about God.

There is always something new to learn about God.
There is always more to Him.
More to experience, more to discover.

"The Lord Has No Equal     
Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers?
Who else knows the weight of the earth
or has weighed the mountains and hills on a scale? 
Who is able to advise the Spirit of the Lord?
Who knows enough to give him advice or teach him?  ...
Does he need instruction about what is good?
Did someone teach him what is right or show him the path of justice?
Who else has held the oceans in his hand?" (Isaiah 40:12-14, NLT)

In this new 30's decade, I hope that I never reach a place where I think I have it all figured out.
And I hope I never have an attitude that acts as if I do.
I hope I heart and mind that keeps learning more - more about relationships, cultures, the stars ...

And I especially want to keep learning more about the Creator of it all.

I want to learn MORE about this God who always offers MORE.
More love, more grace, more hope.

And no matter what decade you are in, I hope you will do the same.
Let's stop acting as if we know it all. Know-it-all's miss it all;)
Instead, let's seek God in a new way - maybe for the first time, maybe for the 70th year.
There's always more.



[I want to hear your lessons from the good 'ole 20's decade! Funny or from-the-heart ... doesn't matter. I love reading your comments!]