Oprah Writes Letter to Younger Self, Focuses On Bible and Godly Inspiration
Oprah Winfrey has penned a letter to her 19-year-old self for publication in an upcoming issue of O Magazine where she advises her former self to lean on God.
The 58-year-old media mogul refers to her former self as "beautiful brown-skinned girl" when she addresses the letter, and offers advice to the younger Oprah, who is struggling to balance her time between school, a full time job at a television station, and a boyfriend named Bubba.
While Winfrey admits that Bubba may have been intimidated by her high-profile job, she tells her former self to stop looking at life through his eyes and to overcome self-esteem issues stemming from rape and abuse.
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"A lesson you will have to learn again and again: to see yourself with your own eyes, to love yourself from your own heart. You've spent too many days and years trying to please others and be what they wanted you to be," Winfrey wrote to herself. "You will have to learn that the wounds of your past-rape, molestation, whippings for 'stepping out of place,' and not being allowed to show anger or cry afterward-damaged your self-esteem."
Still, she advised her younger self to keep her faith in God.
"Yet through it all, you've held on to a belief in God and God's belief in you," Winfrey wrote. "That will be your single greatest gift: knowing there is a power greater than yourself and trusting that Force to guide you."
Winfrey also reminded herself that the miraculous job offer from the television station where she worked full time, while balancing college courses, fell in line with her favorite Bible verse.
"The trajectory of your life changed the day you answered the call from Chris Clark, the news director at WLAC-TV," Winfrey wrote to herself. "Your response was ignited by the words of your then-favorite Bible verse, Philippians 3:14. 'I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.'"
Once again, she reminded herself that God's will would sustain her.
"Knowing there is a 'high calling' is what will sustain and fulfill you," Winfrey wrote to herself.
The full letter that Winfrey wrote to her 19-year-old self will appear in the May issue of O magazine.
