If you could write a letter to yourself when you were younger, what would you say? What would you tell a younger you? What would you say to the version of yourself that hasn't yet lived the life that brought you to where you are today? What could you say? What would I say?

I might want to warn my younger self of what she will have to face. Tell her who she shouldn't be friends with because those friendships won't last. Tell her how everything will turn out, where she will move, who she will meet, what she will come to be able to do. I would want to tell her that God has a plan for her life. But how would that change her? If I knew how it would all turn out when I was younger, would I still be the me I am today? What if telling her who she wouldn't stay friends with would affect her other friendships? What if telling her what she will come to do, will actually cause her not to actually do those things. But the younger me would have loved to receive a letter with the heading "Dear Younger Me."

When I was young and confused, lonely and feeling small, I would have wanted a letter that told me that everything turned out alright. When I was younger I needed a letter that told me all I had to do was turn to God. If only it were possible to send a letter to my past self to tell her that she needed to turn to God, rather than to herself. That she did not need to take so much onto herself. All she needed was God.

Anyone who has heard Mercy Me's new song knows where my idea has come from. I have heard "Dear Younger Me," by Mercy Me a few time now, and I have fallen in love by the idea. To send a letter to your past self. What to say what to cover. Advice that could be given. But with the fear that you might change how you ended up today. You may have had a rough past, but your past is what made you who you are. And while you might want to change your past, do you want to change who you are?

I also thought about receiving a letter from my future self. What I want to know about how my life will be. It would be amazing if I could get a letter that told me the things I worry about now. Will I graduate? Will I become the editor I want to be? Will I marry? Who will I marry? Kids? What friends will I still have? Will I be a part of the same church? How much will God still be in my life? What do I need to know to get to where I want to be?

At that last question I was stopped by a word popping up inside my head. Nothing. I don't need to know anything because God already knows it all.

God knew in the past who I would be today. And He knows now, what I will become. Because of that, what I need to know is nothing. I only need to trust in Him.

So, dear younger me, trust in God. That is all I would need to write to you. He has very great things in store for you and all you need to do is follow the path He has preordained before you. And still today I need these words. He knows my future, for He has already been there. Because of that there is nothing I need to know. Heartache, heartbreaks, times of fear, times of sadness, confusion and doubt. They have been used by God to get me to where I am now. Where I am now, well there's no place I'd rather be. So where I will be someday, I know that God will guide me there with a sure hand and to a firm foundation.

Listen to the song "Dear Younger Me" by Mercy Me. They put it a whole lot better than I could and much more beautifully. Think about the words and know that God knew then, He knows you now, and He knows who you will be. Trust in Him.