What’s the best advice you’d give to someone younger than you?

To the Younger Person Reading This

If I could sit across from you with a cup of coffee and have one honest conversation, this is what I would tell you.

Slow down.

You don’t have to have your whole life figured out today.

Some of the answers you’re desperately searching for can only be learned by living.

Don’t be in such a hurry to grow up that you miss the beauty of where you are right now.

Protect your peace.

Not everyone deserves unlimited access to your heart.

Some people will enter your life to love you.
Others will enter to teach you.

Both have value.

Believe people the first time they show you who they are.

Don’t spend years trying to explain away behavior that has already answered your questions.

Choose character over chemistry.

Looks will change.

Money will come and go.

But integrity, kindness, humility, and faithfulness will carry a relationship much farther than attraction ever will.

Don’t confuse attention with love.

Someone can text you all day and still not value you.

Someone can compliment you constantly and still never truly see you.

Real love is consistent.

Save your money.

Learn the difference between wanting something and needing something.

Financial peace creates choices.

Debt often creates chains.

Spend more time with your parents and grandparents.

Ask questions.

Listen to their stories.

One day you’ll wish you could hear them tell those stories just one more time.

Don’t compare your timeline to someone else’s.

Some people marry at twenty-five.

Some at fifty-five.

Some become parents.

Some build businesses.

Some change careers.

Life isn’t a race.

It’s a journey.

Take care of your body.

The choices you make today become the health you live with tomorrow.

Forgive people.

Not because they deserve it…

But because you deserve peace.

Don’t let bitterness become the home your heart lives in.

Most importantly…

Build your relationship with God before you build your reputation with people.

The world will tell you to chase success.

God will teach you to pursue purpose.

One will impress people.

The other will change your life.

If I could leave you with only one piece of advice, it would be this:

Become the kind of person who can sleep peacefully at night because your life reflects your values, not just your victories.

Success fades.

Beauty changes.

Applause grows quiet.

But character…

Character walks with you for the rest of your life.

And when you look back years from now, I hope your greatest accomplishment isn’t what you owned…

I hope it’s who you became.

— Val