I’m a big fan of running with your arms open wide, taking every chance and every opportunity and never looking back.

A big fan of it. 

Imma big fan of having no regrets and letting God take control of the rest.

Take my past relationship for example.

I let myself fall far. I dreamt and wished and fell hard for my high school crush, truly believe there was nothing/no one else.

I dreamt of marriage with this guy, loved every moment I spent with his family, and never thought I would live without him.

Yet here I am, living on the other side of the country a year later: with no guy, no dream life, no marriage, but also, no regrets.

Break ups and relationships, whether ending on good notes or splitting on bad ones, are just hard from every angle.

And as a girl who feels all the feels all the time, who dreams big and falls hard, I fell flat on my face, real hard, when my “dream” ended.

But I do not have any regrets. Not one.

And I don’t want you to have any regrets either. 

Because living life worrying about making the wrong move or saying the wrong thing or not doing enough or doing too much- is never worth it.

But loving deeply and fully is.

Giving who you are and never holding back who you are, is worth it.

Heck yes there is a chance of hurt in the end. But when is there not?

Now hear me now ladies: I’m not saying lose yourself. I’m not saying give all of you, where you lose yourself and some other pretty important parts of yourself too. Never compromise your worth and heart for something or someone who you know is/are not what The Lord has made for you.

But what I am saying, is don’t be afraid of letting someone in just because you’ve been hurt before.

Don’t be afraid to give in and trust the process of a good thing from the Lord landing in your lap.

Stop letting the worry of regrets or past failures and hurts stop you from living where you are right now.

Because you don’t know the future. But you do know the past. And you do know yourself.

You’ve learned from where you’ve walked, and grown into who you are called to be in the process.

So be you.

Fall hard, and love deeply, and love with no regrets.

And if you fall, know the Lord is working in the mess, and sit in the truth that you have no regrets of how much/deep you loved.

See you soon,

Stephanie Lynn

I wanna be the person who celebrates the small, the big, the goofy, and the awkward.

Because life should be celebrated.

I love when people celebrate people. When people choose the good instead of the bad. When someone flips your day around just by helping you see that the cup isn’t half empty, it’s half full.

I want to be that kind of person– who celebrates those around her and lifts others up in their successes and sits with them when their down, then drags them to get ice cream because you might as well eat ice cream if you’ve had a bad day. Ice cream is always a good idea.

Life should be celebrated.

I want to be a woman who sees herself as strong and full and perfect and whole in Jesus, and then just pour that truth into every woman around me.

Because let’s face it- the world these days just isn’t satisified with who we are now- it is always focused on making us better, skinnier, healthier, popular-er.

But that isn’t how God created us to be.

He created us saying, “You do you, babe” (my paraphrasing, of course).

God created us to be exactly who we are and no one else. He created us to own who we are and live like no one is watching.

So girl?

You do you.

I want to be good. That is what my One personality strives for (check out the Enneagram if you don’t get what I’m sayin’ here).

But really this word “good” has stuck out to me over the last few months when I have been digging into the Word.

God is good. God has so much good in this world for us. He wants us to do good. He wants us to be enthusiastic to do good. He wants us to do good and love deeply in His name.

And I’ve realized, that is all I really want to do. That all I really want to be.

I want to be good- for Him and for His Kingdom and glory.

Do good.

I want to celebrate life, big and small, be who God created me to be and leak that truth to every woman I meet, and do good everywhere I go.

(In short, I’ve realized that the kind of person I want to be, happens to be my mom. She leaks Jesus and joy and love and grace. She celebrates even when you’d rather sit and pout, she owns who God made her to be, and she is the good-est person I know.)

So mom? I wanna be like you, I guess.

See you soon,

Stephanie Lynn

I ran into a friend from college at Starbucks while I was home.

A friend who is too sweet to handle, loves really well and went to Zambia for 3 solid months, and she’s a beast at nursing.

Yet she told me that she thought I was so brave to move all the way out to California by myself.

And I wanted to shake her and tell her with as much love and passion as I could that in no way am I brave- especially compared to her.

Now please hear me: I so so so so so appreciate everyone who has supported me and loved me and totally encouraged me as I have taken this literal leap of faith across the country. I am so humbled by every single person who gives me more credit for taking that risk than I ever could deserve.

But please know that I am not brave. I am not a risk-taker who is living a glorious life on the west coast. I do not have more faith in myself/trust myself better than you.

I am not braver than you.

I am not anything more than you.

I am just me.

Just an awkward, goofy, highly emotional-too obsessed with airports and cacti-kinda girl.

I am stinking normal, and so are you.

But that doesn’t mean normal can’t be brave.

That doesn’t mean that normal can’t take a risk, buy a new computer for the heck of it, or spend too much money on a memory or drive 2 hours just to meet a friend for coffee.

Just because you didn’t move across the country doesn’t mean you are a failure.

Just because you stayed in your hometown after college or are nannying full-time after graduating a whole semester early or living in your parent’s basement after 4 years in nursing school, doesn’t mean that you aren’t brave.
That you aren’t living your life.
That you don’t measure up to that person who got that full-time job and travels for a living (not me, just someone I have caught myself measuring myself up against.)

Being brave and taking a risk isn’t just for those few people whose lives look good on social media- it’s for you too.

And taking risks starts with little yet big baby steps.

Little big baby steps that hurt like hell. Lets be honest.

Because what you guys don’t know is that I have had a whole team backing me as I thought through what I wanted to do with my life after college. I took many many many little big baby steps that lead me to my big decision to move across the country.

I took 4 steps forward and 5 steps back almost every day.

I went to a counselor every two weeks or so.

I cried to my mom about my life choices more than I can count.

I questioned, I bargained, I doubted, I cried- a lot.

I took 7 months to learn about myself, learn my dreams, and made the decision to follow them.

I took time to figure it out, and it wasn’t easy.

It wasn’t easy, but I knew what my Heavenly Father was calling me to, and I had to keep moving, even if none of those moves made sense to the world.

And even after making that big decision to move to Southern California, I still am needing to take little big baby steps. I am still figuring out my life.

So the reason I am writing this?

Because I want you to stop saying you wish you could do something ‘crazy’ and
just do it. 

Because I want you to believe and know that you are brave, too.

Please stop telling me I am brave, and please see yourself as the wonderful, brave, strong person that you are, and do what you have been wanting to do.

Do what you think about as you lay your head down at night.

Do your dreams because you can.

I am nothing special. Nothing even close to it.

Please see that you can do it too, but it takes time. It takes steps that may seem so little yet are steps that are so incredibly vital to the process. It takes big decisions, it takes more prayer than you want, and it takes guts to take just one tiny step.

But I know you can do it.

And then remember that the journey isn’t over once you’ve taken the risk. My tears didn’t stop, my questions still linger, but my hope and faith in our God and myself grew 100x more because of those tiny steps.

So pick up your boot straps, write out your dreams and take the first step you need to in order to make those dreams a reality.

And dream big, because that is the only way to dream.

And luckily my good friend Jordan has a whole entire series on this, taking you step by step in how the heck to even take on adult life and take that “risk” you’ve dreamt of taking all your life.

Oh- and I am always open for a new roommate.

See ya soon,

Stephanie Lynn