A Letter to My Younger Self by Steph Beth Nickel

Dear 20-Something Self,

Some things we can’t learn without experiencing them. So, while there is lots I’d love to encourage you to change, lessons I’d love for you to learn sooner, we likely wouldn’t be here, just a couple of months before our 65^th birthday.

And just where is here?

After 40+ years in the same city, Dave and I are packing and prepping the house to put on the market. Joshua, Son #2, and his wife, Ericka, (yep, we’re a mother-in-law twice over) live two provinces over. Sarah, Kiddo #3, moved in with them last fall. She hopes to buy a place of her own when she has saved up enough for a downpayment. And our plan, Lord willing, is for Dave and I to move west after the house sells.

That will be a huge adventure, considering we’ve never lived out of the province. While we’re excited, the thought of leaving behind family and friends will become more emotionally charged as the date approaches. Several people have said how much they don’t want us to go, some who have known us for years and others we’ve befriended more recently.

Last year, Dave finally retired from his “temporary” job at the Housing Corporation, where he worked for over 40 years. (The Lord never opened the doors to full-time music ministry as we’d anticipated.) Nathanial came home from Scotland to celebrate his dad’s retirement and his 70^th b-day. (Sadly, N’s wife, Laura, couldn’t take the time off work.) Joshua and Ericka also joined us. And Sarah was still living at home at this point.

While all this happened just last year, it seems like it was much longer ago. What doesn’t seem that long ago is the adventure Dave and I shared with Nathanial and Laura in 2024. We travelled to Iceland with them and toured Scotland, where they live. Nathanial also took Dave and I to Ireland for five days toward the end of our time across the Pond.

So, all that to say…

Our life has been a sequence of adventures. And hopefully, there are several more yet to come.

You, my 20-something self, have challenging days ahead. You’ll make mistakes you’d love to erase. Words—lots of words—you’d love not to have said. Accusations you’ll wish you’d never made. Lessons you’d love to have learned much earlier. Opportunities you’ll grab hold of and others that will slip through your fingers. And a battle with anger that only the Lord could deliver you from.

But know this…

Romans 8:28 is true. God truly works all things together for good.

His mercy and grace are unfathomable.

And His blessings… Innumerable.

Trust the Lord. Grow in your love for Him. And grow in your love for those whose paths cross yours.

Embrace the adventure that is your life!

Steph Beth Nickel is the former Editor of FellowScript and the current InScribe Contest Coordinator. Steph is an editor and author and plans to relocate to Saskatchewan from Ontario to be close to family in 2027. (Headshot Photo Credit: Jaime Mellor Photography)

Time Capsule: A Letter to My Future Self by Sandi Somers

February 12, 2026

To my future self in December 2026,

I have a special Christmas card and letter for you to open in December, 2026. It’s sealed like a time capsule and is my gift to you—a review of your year.

I’ll give you the background to the letter, as a trailer-of-sorts.

In my yearly plans in January, the Lord gave me a special verse: “Launch out into the deep.” (Luke 5:4). I was also reminded of Paul’s words: “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power” (Ephesians 6:10).

I began with brainstorming all the things I’d like to accomplish this year. Then with that list, I asked myself:

· What would I attempt if I were sure the Lord were with me infusing wisdom, love, courage, and strength?

· What obstacles seem to be standing in my way?

· What specific things do I need to ask God to give me?

· What are some steps I need to take to get there? (List several)

· Where/how is the Lord prompting me now to step out in faith and risk?

I also included a quote from Lloyd John Ogilvie, one of my favourite authors, who wrote the book, The Lord of the Impossible: “Ask God to help you dare to risk attempting something He’s revealed He wants you to be and do.”

So as you open my card and read my letter, you'll find many questions about my life in 2026. They include such questions as: “What did you risk, and with what results? (Conversely, what risks did you not take, and with what results?) What surprised you? What was your greatest success of the year?” Unexpected events and situations often come up during the year, and my questions included: “What were they and how did you handle them? How did they influence your writing?” “How and where did you most honour the Lord this year?”

Before I get carried away with the questions, just a reminder to note that it will be important to assess what you learned from this process, and what takeaways you can offer for my plans and writing in 2027.

With love from your younger self,
Sandi

PS—I’ve tucked the Christmas card and letter in all my notes for the InScribe Writers’ Online blog. You’ll find it in the “December” notes.

 

Sandi Somers’ writing passion is to help readers grow their faith in Jesus, including their vision of what God wants them to be and do. Sandi lives in Calgary, Alberta, the delightful city between the Rocky Mountains and the Prairies, where she enjoys God’s beauty through walking and driving in nature, gardening in season, reading, and connecting with extended family and friends.

                                                                

Notes to Self Through the Decades ~ Valerie Ronald

Dear Valerie Evelyn,

You arrived along with the spring flowers in April. Your parents and brothers welcomed you with joy˗˗a wee redheaded girl with big eyes eager to take in the world. Your childhood holds some of my clearest early memories. Most cherished are scenes and stories from your imagination. You skipped through the veil between fantasy and reality like a fairy child, happy living in tales of your own weaving. Your parents hurried you along when you dawdled, immersed in your inner world. They did not realize their little girl’s whimsical fancies were the dawning of a deep inner life. Now you hold my hand in the twilight before I sleep, telling myself stories to calm my mind, as you once did. You will always be a part of me.

With young womanhood came your awakening to the possibility of romantic love. You ran fast after it, thinking all questions would be answered through the heart, but found it to be a tender organ, quick to bruise and slow to heal. If you had realized then that your heart’s longing could only find true fulfillment in one perfect Man, Jesus Christ, much suffering may have been averted. Eventually you embraced a new life in Christ, but not before your heart was trampled and thrown aside. I still live with the scars of that broken heart, now made whole because of the healing love of Jesus.

Becoming a mother gave your creative imagination a chance to blossom again. Tea parties with dolls, playing pirates in the forest, and stories before bedtime; these brought you delight through the eyes of your children. You entered into their world, not just as their mother but as a fellow creative who sparked their imaginations with what if’s and let’s pretend. You have reason to be proud of their adult accomplishments as musicians, artists, and writers.

When you learned to read and write as a child, a way opened for you to express your inner world through the written word. It came as naturally to you as breathing. You dreamed of a career as a journalist, however, marriage and family set that dream aside.

No need to think you failed, though, because from my vantage point I see God’s perfect timing in those dreams now coming to fruition in my golden years. The day is here when all you learned in your walk with Jesus gives you much to share with others through your writing. But first you will go through the refiner’s fire. Refining will reveal depths of God’s character and purposes only suffering brings to light. I guarantee it will be worth it all to know the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God.  (Romans 11:33 NIV)

I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, who calls you by your name, am the God of Israel. (Isaiah 45:3 NKJV)

It seems just a short time ago you were a little girl swaying on a backyard swing, absorbed in the magical tales of your imagination. Soon you and I will experience what no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined, when we enter God’s kingdom to see Jesus face to face.

Take courage, dear heart!

From your older self, who loves you always 

Valerie Ronald writes from an old roll top desk in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, 

with her tortoiseshell cat for a muse. A graduate of Langara College School of Journalism,

she writes devotionals, fiction, and inspirational prose. Her purpose in writing

is to encourage others to grow in their spiritual walk.                                                 

Mail at Death’s Door by Michelle Joy Teigrob

 

To Me on My Final Day,

Well, I guess this is it. You’re about to become the shadow, the mist, the flower, that vanishes from earth forever. Of course, we both know this also means you’re stepping into something more glorious than you could ever imagine. (More on that in another letter).

For this missive, I want to talk about your time on earth.

Oh, how I yearn to know that you are finishing well. How my heart strains with the hope that that, as you heave your final breath, your spirit rests fully at peace.

Finish well, my dear, older self. Whether that final day occurs one day from now, one month, or one year, cross the finish line with your spiritual chin up, shoulders back, arms pumping.

I know middle age shook you harder than you expected. For a time, you allowed discouragement and even some despair to rattle your spirit into nearly giving up in bitterness. As heartache and trouble slammed into your middle years, you wondered why God had ever let you live.

Why did you and your twin survive a very difficult birth, when the doctor believed both of you could likely not make it? Why, at 21 years of age, could you walk away with only minor injuries from the same car crash that took your twin to heaven much too early? So very often your spirit cried out these questions.

I suspect, even on your last day on earth, you don’t hold the complete answer to these wonderings. They are the sorts of anguished musings that I truly believe can only be fully and satisfactorily responded to in heaven.

But, I hope, oh, I pray so hard, that between the time that I pen this letter and the day you step into eternity, you found a way to exist with the tension of not knowing those answers while also living every day as faithfully and fully as God gave you strength.

I pray you discovered and held onto whatever it was you needed to remain faithful – faithful to God, faithful to your family, and faithful to your life’s purpose, including the call you sensed on your heart to write.

I know that in mid-life you drank fresh courage and inspiration from learning about the lives of writers who embarked on their writing ministries in the latter half of their existence. The story of Hildegard of Bingen especially nourished your motivation. Born in 1098, Hildegard started writing for publication in middle age. Despite physical sickness and an acute sense of her own inadequacies, she went on to pen visionary books, two volumes on natural medicine, 77 pieces of music, and more than 400 letter corresponding with popes, emperors, and other leading figures of her day. (The fact that she was the youngest of ten children, like you, sparked a special sense of connection with her, despite the centuries between you).

“Never, never, never give up.” Long before the days of social media posts, our twin Maria had discovered this line famously spoken by Winston Churchill during the black days of World War II. I remember seeing it scribbled in one of her notebooks. Decades later, our son Micah, drawn to the same powerful line, copied it out on a card and taped it to his wall. You always loved to collect snippets of sayings that ignited your spirit – and quotes loved by people you loved gave you extra fire.

I pray that to your final day, you never stopped drawing courage, hope, and strength from stories and sayings.

More than anything, I pray so earnestly that you never ever gave up the practice you started as a young woman of calling out to the Giver of Life, of always seeking to know him more, and of depending on him fully and completely for your every need.

Dear, older self on your last day on earth, as the windows of heaven begin to part, my whole being yearns to know that you are hearing these words: “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23, ESV).

Please, for my sake, for the sake of all who ever loved you -- those who have gone before, those still alive, and the generations of the future -- but, most of all, for the sake of Jesus, your Saviour and Lord – finish well.

Michelle Joy Teigrob lives with her family in Peterborough, Ontario. Her book on grief, Joyfully Star-mapping Through Life's Dung Piles, is now available at michellejoybooks.ca.