Started Earlier

What’s one thing you wish you had started doing earlier in life?

I wish that I had started earlier stewarding what has been given to me earlier in my life.

I have wasted so much time on things that don’t matter. I prioritized things that didn’t matter, people who didn’t prioritize me, and just not being intentional about what I do with my time. I would numb out in front of screens instead of stewarding my time productively.

I wish I had started earlier stewarding my words earlier. I have spoken so many idle words, I wish I could take back. My words have at times torn other down or hurt them. I have spoken things that don’t honor God or those made in His image.

I wish I had started earlier stewarding my relationships better. I often prioritized the wrong people, or worse myself. I didn’t keep my relationship with God in His rightful place. As a result, I didn’t steward my marriage, my role as a parent, or as a friend well.

I wish I had started earlier stewarding the gifts and abilities God gave me. I feel like when I should have been learning I was distracted. When I should have been fine tuning my skills I was working to catch up. Now I recognize how much I have to learn still about everything that is important. I want to be obedient to what God places within me and before me. I wish I had started earlier, believing in myself, and trusting God could work in and through me, regardless of my past, because He is so much greater. Nothing is impossible for Him.

I wish I had started earlier stewarding my body and mind, for it is the temple of God. I recognize that I became complacent in my health. I’m not sure that physical or mental health wherever a top priority growing up, but I was always active. After I graduated, desk jobs took over, activity, decreased, and food increased. Even though I am losing the weight, my body is now responding to the years of neglect. In the past decade God has done so much. In helping tear down the walls and layers of self protection, but there are lies I believed that He is still uprooting. Regardless of what was a priority growing up, I am responsible for the choices I made the past 32 years.

I wish I had started earlier, stewarding my finances and resources. I still remember being a teenager and working part-time. A friend took my check register and showed me how much money I wasted. I wish I had listened to that word, even though it was not spoken in correction. I wish I had not made foolish decisions to live a lifestyle I couldn’t afford instead of putting money into savings and investing.

Here’s what I know, although there are so many things I wish I had started earlier, I serve God who is restoring. He is restoring the time I wasted, because His timing is perfect. He is restoring the words I should’ve spoken over others, because His grace is sufficient. He is restoring relationships, because they were shaping and molding me into the woman He created me to be. He is restoring the faith and trust I need to walk out the gifts and purposes that He has placed within me, because His gifts and calling are irrevocable. He is restoring my health and aligning my mind with His, so that I can finish this race strong for Him and with Him. He is restoring the resources I wasted, because they were meant to be used for His glory. Well, I might have wish I started earlier, God was not surprised by my delay, and it did not deter what He wants to accomplish.