When I was a teenager I would to cringe each time I heard someone say, “Enjoy this time while it lasts because these will be the best years of your life!”
I thought, “Holy crap! If THESE are the best years, what the HECK do I have to look forward to??”
I didn’t exactly have the fondest of memories from my school years. Don’t get me wrong, I have plenty of good (and some GREAT) memories from those years, but there is also plenty that keeps me from longing for yester-year. I can honestly say, too, that those who told me those would be the best years of my life were entirely wrong. I am quite thankful for that fact. In fact, like the title suggests, I feel as though my life is progressing like a fine wine and actually IMPROVING with time.
After all the things I have been through in my life and the lessons God is teaching me through it all, I can see how I am not the same girl I used to be. I have a confidence now that I wish I’d had in school. I don’t deal with the level of anxiety and depression that I remember so well from younger days. I’m actually ENJOYING being single for however long it may last. I have come to live in the truth that God is a good Dad to ME, and I am enjoying being romanced by Him as the Lover of my soul. I like myself, and I’m head over heels in love with Jesus. I’m learning to trust God more and more in the good times AND the hard times. I am finding joy in the midst of difficult circumstances. I am more bold about Christ than I’ve ever been before.
Given the changes that have taken place in myself over the past year I am so excited to see what God has in store for the remainder of my days on this earth. I hope and pray, too, that you can say that your life is like a fine wine…only getting better with time. And I don’t say that to mean that things are any easier or that nothing “bad” happens. I only mean that as we grow closer to God through Christ that we can have more abounding joys than we thought imaginable, even through our darkest hours.
