Hey, friends!
The last time I posted on here I was a twenty-something and now I’m 30! Almost thirty and a half, to be exact. (Anyone else get excited about their half-birthday?! Maybe it’s because I teach Kindergarten. In Kindergarten-land, five and a half is SO much older than 5!)
I’m on here to encourage anyone in their twenties who is closing in on 30. I’ll admit I was totally nervous about turning the “big 3-0” last October. And celebrating such a milestone birthday without a husband or a little one was not something 20-year-old Colleen could ever have imagined or planned. Or wanted.
Yet God never promised me that my life would work out according to my plans (or my time table, to be more specific!), but that He would fulfill His purposes for me. HIS purposes. HIS being the key word here. (It took me a good part of my twenties to really get that).
I would like to share five reasons why turning 30 is awesome when you trust Jesus.
I pray this is an encouragement to you!
Let’s begin!
1.) You care a lot less about what other people think.
Okay, okay. It’s not like the clock strikes midnight on your last night of being 29 and suddenly now that you’re 30, you are instantly more confident. It’s just the fact that leaving your twenties gives you a unique perspective you could never have had as a twenty-something.
I think a lot of times your twenties can be a decade of feeling like you have to prove yourself. Over and over and over again. You’re applying to college and trying to prove you’ll be awesome at college. But you’ve never done college before. Then you graduate, and you’re applying to jobs of which you have limited experience and you’re trying to prove that you’re the one for the position. And you’ve never had a full-time job in that field yet. You go back to grad school and now you’re trying to prove that you can juggle career and school at the same time. It can be super challenging and exhausting.
I’d like to tell you that I soared above all of this in my twenties and was super confident in everything I did. That’s not the case. But when I look back on my twenties, all of the times where I felt super confident and hopeful about life - every single time was when I was standing on God’s Word and believing what He said about me more than what the world said or what I thought about myself.
One of my favorite memories from my twenties is memorizing and praying a passage from Psalms right before my first teaching interview after college. I was 24. I aced the interview and got the job. It was amazing! And I’ve never forgotten how it felt like God helped me get that position which has since served as a stepping-stone to so much more than I could have seen back then.
But there’s also moments when I lived in fear and let the “what if’s” scare me away from amazing opportunities to live a braver story.
Turning 30 and looking back on my years made me see that choosing the brave choice is better than choosing the “safe” choice. A “safe” choice in my twenties might have been caring too much about what other people think and trying to please everyone and make everyone happy - an impossibility I would have readily confessed to you, but something I honestly still strived for. It’s become crystal clear that my purpose never was to please people from a place of fear, but to love people from a place of fearless vulnerability and courage.
And when you really think about it, loving people is a lot more fun, meaningful, and in line with the heart of Jesus than caring about what people think.
2.) You celebrate your own story more.
After three decades of journeying with yourself, with the help of Jesus, you begin to really celebrate this story that He’s given to you and this world. The story of your life. No one else in this entire world looks like you, has the same hopes and dreams, shares your exact cultural and personal history. You are a masterpiece to God and altogether lovely to Him.
This is more than just bolstering your own self-esteem with good thoughts and mantras. This is the deep realization that God created your life, wills you to exist, and has good works for you to do here on this earth. He could have not created you, but He did! He did! Isn’t that amazing?! (Seriously, stop and take a moment and think about that!)
And celebrating what God has done in creating your life is a beautiful place to be. Because then you can jump into the mystery! Which means that my story doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s and I don’t need all the answers to the questions I have. God’s timing in my life is not going to match anyone else’s. Many people I know are already married with kids by 30, but that’s not everyone’s story. I earned a Master’s degree by the time I turned 29. That’s not everyone’s story either.
I could focus on what I still pray for - marriage and motherhood - or I could celebrate what God has done so far in my story and that by His grace alone, it’s not over yet! The story continues on and the same faithful God who saw me through every single day of my twenties will be here in my thirties.
My goal is to not get in His way with my striving, worrying, and trying to take control. This does not mean I’m passive. But believe you me, I’ve learned to fall on my face and pray for His will to be done after demanding my will many times, getting it, and as my Dad would say, “learning the hard way.”
What’s amazing about God is that He will let you learn the hard way, forgive you, and pick up with you every single time. However, submitting to His will the first time and yielding to Him when you can’t see or understand why, is the best road to walk. I’ve learned to pray: “Holy Spirit, Enable me to follow Your still, small voice at all times and in all things. I want God’s will in all areas of my life, not mine.”
3.) You’re freer.
Twenty-five years ago this spring, I gave my heart to Jesus as a five year old little girl. It’s so awe-inspiring to me to think that Jesus captured my heart when I was so young and that He’s been the Lord and Savior of my life for a quarter of a century now. Wow! I’ve never regretted following Him and I shudder - I seriously shudder - to think of where my life would be if I had not trusted Him to be my Lord and Savior.
The longer you walk with Jesus, the deeper you get with Him. He brings up things in your heart to deal with and heals the brokenness inside of you even you didn’t know was there. He seeks greater and greater freedom for you with each passing year of your life. Jesus will never keep you at status quo or where you are. Living for Him is a constant perfecting in the hands of the Master Potter. It’s painful at times, but any suffering He allows you to walk through is ultimately for your greatest good and His greatest glory.
When I say that you’re freer, I say it with condition. You can reach 30 and not experience this at all - if you reach 30 without Christ. Sure, you could be more sure of yourself and mature, but only Jesus can bring true freedom into someone’s life.
In recent years, Jesus set my heart free from legalism. I grew up as the “good girl” and all I wanted to do was follow Jesus and please Him. Somewhere along the line, I ended up thinking that meant I had to be perfect and that my righteousness was dependent on what I did and my works. I relied on my own good choices as if I needed to earn something or prove something to God. How this must have broken His heart! Jesus came to me when my life was in pieces and showed me that all along it was never about what I did, but all about what He had finished on the cross. I’m still wrecked - in the best way - by what Jesus taught me in that season. My worth was never dependent on my ability to hold everything together and be the “good girl.” Christ decided my worth more than 2,000 years ago on the cross when He died for me. I am worth dying for and because of His sacrifice, I don’t have to earn a right relationship with God. Jesus paid it all!
I share all of this because of something I believe with all of my heart: When we are free, we live like Jesus. He’s working on our heart so that we can reach more people with His love and Truth. Friends, let Him do His work. Let Him free you from anything untrue. Let Him love you to wholeness. Let Him, let Him, let Him.
4.) You’ve spent time developing your skills and passions.
Along with greater skills you’ve developed in the workplace over the course of your twenties, you’ve also spent time honing your passions by the time you reach 30. In other words, you have well-developed talents to share with others now in ways you couldn’t have at age 20.
For me, that’s cooking and baking. I remember going through a stretch in my twenties of frozen meal after frozen meal. I eventually decided that I needed to invest more in enjoying the process of preparing food. The summer I was 26, I cooked my way through an entire cookbook and learned so much. I remember making everything from blueberry crisp to ristotto to steak au poivre to chicken enchiladas to bacon-wrapped dates to dark chocolate sea salt toffee. I loved every minute and beside the fresh ingredients, I only needed to buy a cast iron skillet and a candy thermometer. I already had everything else in my kitchen to make all the recipes!
My cooking skills unexpectedly were such a tremendous blessing in grad school, especially the semester I completed student-teaching. My days started before the school bell rang each morning and didn’t end until around 9:00pm when I completed my grad school classes four nights a week. I have seriously never, ever been busier in my life than I was that season! Every Sunday afternoon/evening, I would meal prep all of my lunches, dinners, and snacks for the week. It was so nice to focus on school and teaching and know that I had my fancy salad I pre-made or healthy dinner waiting for me. I saved a ton of money, too!
Now, I enjoy cooking and baking healthy food for myself and my family and friends. I surprise myself with what I can whip up with just a few ingredients and some creativity!
Currently, I’ve been getting back into volleyball and I absolutely love it. There’s always some skill or talent we can sharpen in our lives. Let’s not waste a minute! Our future self will be thankful. Plus, God can amaze you with how He’s able to turn your talents into ministry opportunities.
5.) You’re excited for the future!
I think this may be my favorite of all. I believe 30 is a very significant year. Joseph from the Bible was 30 when he became second-in-command over Egypt. Jesus was 30 when He started His public ministry. The world tries to make you afraid of 30, but I believe this is a special time in God’s eyes.
I would say that 30 is a time of both greater confidence and increased humility. Together, confidence and humility create an excitement about what’s ahead. You’re not over-confident about who you are because you’ve been through seasons of humbling, but you’re not insecure about who you are because along with the humbling times, God’s blessed with you times of great growth and dreams fulfilled.
Jesus always leads us to greater and greater knowledge of who He is and that is the foundation for our excitement for the future. He cherishes each season of our lives and celebrates how far we’ve come while also beckoning us on to more glorious things for His honor and praise.
And with Jesus leading the way, you wouldn’t want to rewind and re-live your twenties even if you could. You wouldn’t trade the depth of closeness you have with Jesus for anything. And with Him leading you, you have nothing to fear or regret because you’ll never miss your purpose when you follow after Him.
Whatever age you are, with Jesus, the best is always still yet to be.
If you’ve been to my blog, you know I like to end my posts with a prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for Your amazing love for us. I pray that You would bless every person who reads this post. Please bless them with crazy amounts of joy, hope, and grace! Open their eyes to see Your beauty, goodness, and mercy in their lives in ways they have never seen before. Give them whatever they need at this stage in their life and if they’re a twenty-something, I pray that You would give them so much excitement (and peace) about turning 30 one day! Give them Your vision for their futures and give them the willingness and strength to obey You and follow You wherever You lead them. I pray that by the power of the Holy Spirit, they would overflow with hope as they trust in You. I pray that their greatest joy in this life would be found in You alone. I thank You, Jesus, for pursuing their heart and captivating them with Your love. Keep them close to You always. Father, thank You for loving us. Thank You for Your faithfulness yesterday, thank You for your grace and love today, thank You for bright hope for tomorrow. In the powerful, awesome, holy, beautiful, and wonderful Name of Jesus, Amen.
I also want to start ending my posts with praise, too! Here are three songs that have meant a lot to me:
Have a great week, everyone!!
Love always,
Colleen
