What Advice Would You Give Your Younger Self?

We all learn lessons as we grow that we wish our younger selves knew. Some are simple like, “Don’t waste your time dating that guy” or “Wear sunscreen more often.” However, some of the lessons are deep and I learned over years of difficulty. 

If you had a time machine TODAY and could go back and talk to your younger self, what would you say? 

There is SO much I would want to tell young Joy:) So much that I wish someone had come alongside to help me with. 

One thing would be, “Advocate for yourself and deal with conflict because you matter.” I am horrible at standing up for myself. I used to let people walk all over me because I thought I was just “loving people” and putting them first. I was losing myself in the process. God is teaching me even today to grow a backbone, to draw boundaries, and to advocate for myself. I might not be struggling with it so much today if I had addressed it when I was much younger!

I’m grateful for the many lessons that have accompanied advocating for myself and sometimes when we look back it helps us to see where we need to go moving forward.