Dear 12-year-old Emma...

Earlier this year I wrote a letter to 12-year-old me to share with a bunch of young people as a way of sharing a bit of my story and journey of discovery with God. I was reminded of writing this today so thought I’d share it here as the first of hopefully many blogs/notes on my miscellaneous musings.

So here it is. Read it, don’t read it, mock that cheeky snap of Eyebrows-McGee(!) - whatever you do, I really do hope you embrace glorious, precious, unique you and know how loved you are by the One who loved first.

Rocking the polar neck since the 00s.

Dear 12 year old Emma,

You’ve spent too long worrying about what other people think of you. I know that every day you are worried about whether you talk too much, whether your friends really like you, whether you’re going to get the grades you need to go to university and whether you’ll ever actually get a boyfriend. So here’s the heads up, the spoiler alert, the low-down on life. Keep reading; this is important.

Stop worrying whether you talk too much. God gave you your personality and your talkative nature and He loves you for it. He loves when you talk to Him about absolutely nothing and when you talk to him about absolutely everything. So keep on talking; it’s who you are.

Stop worrying about whether your friends like you; they do. They want to spend time with you and though in time you may lose touch, they will stick with you through some good and bad times and you should thank God for whatever part they play in your life.

Stop worrying about your grades, it’s cliché but doing your best is what really matters. You are so much more than some letters on a page. In fact, university won’t be your path until much, much later and that’s okay. Try your best; but don’t let that be the best of you. It is not your exam marks that define you.

Stop worrying about dating. Spoiler alert: you’ll have to wait another 5 years for that and that’s okay. Don’t settle – you deserve better than that. The right person is waiting for you and trust me, he is worth waiting for. In the meantime, respect yourself, love yourself and don’t compromise yourself. You are worth so much more than you realise.

So stop apologising for who you are and start celebrating who you are. You are wonderfully and fearfully made by a God who made everything - the stars, the seas, the mountains, the seasons, those crazy hypnotic colour changing fish that David Attenborough will introduce to you one day…and best of all, He made you. And He thinks you are a precious creation, a masterpiece and He loves you so, so much.

So dear Emma, dear chatty, enthusiastic, extroverted Emma – stop all your worrying, I know you think it will help but I promise it won’t help in the long run. Embrace who you were made to be, because God is so proud of His work.

Keep on going,

Love future you.