{"id":3241,"date":"2026-09-15T16:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T21:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/?p=3241"},"modified":"2026-09-15T16:56:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T21:56:24","slug":"you-are-built-to-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/15\/you-are-built-to-last\/","title":{"rendered":"You are Built to Last"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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This September marks 25 years since 9\/11, one of those moments that divided our collective lives into before<\/em> and after<\/em>. We remember where we were. We remember how suddenly everything changed. We remember the uncertainty of realizing that things we had assumed were secure could be shaken in an instant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, our personal upheavals are not the same as a national tragedy. But anniversaries like this can remind us of something we sometimes forget: Life can change quickly. What once seemed solid can shift. And when it does, we discover what our lives are really built on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know something about that kind of discovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Comfortable Wasn’t Enough<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Several years ago, my life looked successful and comfortable from the outside. I was leading in my community and in my church. I had been married for 15 years. Life was good\u2014but it had also become repetitive. In many ways, I felt as though I were living life on repeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That sense of living on repeat echoes something Monette Sedberry explored just a few days ago in the Best-Life Project in \u201cHas Your Marriage Become a Little Too Predictable?\u201d<\/strong>\u2014how easily comfortable routines can begin to fill the space where something more intentional once lived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And somewhere underneath all of that success and activity, I felt unseen and unappreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That matters to my story because it created a vulnerability I didn’t fully recognize at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day, I responded to an Instagram message that appealed directly to that very human desire to feel noticed and appreciated. I let my spiritual guard down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What began with something seemingly small became a disruption that would change nearly everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For three months, I was fed lies\u2014and I believed them. At the time, I truly thought I was doing the right thing. Looking back, I can see how easily we can lose our footing when we begin looking to people, circumstances or things in this world to give us the importance, acceptance and appreciation that were never meant to come from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had shifted my focus away from God and from what I knew to be true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it almost destroyed my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Moment I Finally Saw Clearly<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, I found myself sitting alone in my house\u2014the one thing I had left. I had no job. My marriage was gone. I had no car. My money was gone. And no one was coming to rescue me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was one of those staggering, breathless, punch-in-the-gut moments when there is nowhere left to hide from reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What in the world had happened?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That moment could have been the end of my story. Instead, it became the beginning of rebuilding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I still had two months remaining with a coach, and her guidance became an important part of finding my way forward. I also had family and friends who loved me without judging me. With their support\u2014and with God’s grace\u2014I began the slow work of rebuilding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had to create sustainability in my life again. I had to rebuild spiritually. I had to learn about forgiveness, including forgiving myself. I had to learn to love myself again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In many ways, I had to restart my heart. It didn’t happen instantly. Real rebuilding rarely does. But I discovered something along the way: Being shaken is not the same as being destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Are You Built On?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We spend much of our lives building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We build careers, families, homes, friendships, reputations and financial security. We build routines that make life comfortable. We build identities around the roles we fill and the people who need us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is nothing wrong with any of those things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The danger comes when we ask them to carry the weight of telling us who we are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many women, particularly as we move through our 50s, 60s and beyond, some of the roles that once defined us begin to change. Children leave home. Careers shift or end. Relationships change. People who once depended on us may not need us in the same way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we can begin to wonder:<\/p>\n\n\n\n