I was an emo kid without knowing it.
I may not have worn the black hoodies and lipstick or listened to punk rock, but looking back I can’t help but chuckle—and wince—at how angsty I was, even in middle school.
“No one understands meeeeeeeee!!” I constantly cried out into the void, posing solemnly by a windowsill and watching the rain fall to the earth. Little did I know, but millions of people before me had also shouted into the same void (the void is getting quite full now).
When you’re 6, or 12, or 16, being a cool kid is this golden aspiration that never quite seems in reach.
Sometimes you’re on the fringe of the cool kids, in the far outskirts, or perhaps a few lucky moments of your life you’re actually cool.
I had so much learning to do. And I still do. Because The Cool Kids Club never goes away. There will always be people “cooler” than you, but as an adult it might look a little different.
The people we look to now have the nicest clothes, the nicest cars, the nicest bank accounts, and probably the nicest faces.
There is so much liberty in learning to be grateful for exactly this moment. You may be far away from your goal weight; that book you want to write one day may be burning a hole in your brain (and your computer memory); and Prince Charming might have gotten stuck in traffic on the interstate on his way to finally find you.
But God has sovereignly ordained this moment.
He’s ordained that we’re not in The Cool Kids Club…but who decided THEY were the cool ones anyway?
Look around you. Your family is pretty dang cool. And your friends?? Obviously have great taste because they’re your friends 🙂 (hahahaha jk jk we are not about mindless self love here).
The real Cool Kids Club happens when you embrace God’s will for your life and feel safe in His purpose for you.
For a long time, I was trapped in a cage I’d built around myself: I wasn’t this enough or that enough, didn’t have this and had this instead. I felt like the lamest person in the UNIVERSE.
But when I remembered that God only asks us to do our best and walk in His will for us, that gave me so much freedom.
Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”
Psalm 37:23 “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.”
Proverbs 16:9 “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.”
