We both know the sting of being let down by the ones who should have held us up. The ones who spoke of love but practiced control. The ones who taught us to trade our own needs for their comfort. The ones who called sacrifice holy while asking you to disappear. You learned to betray yourself because they taught you betrayal in the name of belonging.
But hear this: it is not our calling to abandon any part of who we are to make anyone comfortable. It is not righteous to shrink. It is not selfish to love yourself first.
It is sacred, it is true, it is the very foundation of all we are becoming.
Yes, shame will always sit heavy. Trauma will rear its ugly head. The weight may never vanish entirely. But heaviness is not destiny. The isolation it breeds is a lie. Shame does not own the last word.
Love does, always love.
One day we will see that choosing ourselves isn’t abandonment of others. Rather, it is the first act of faithfulness. We will learn to stand without apology, and we will discover companions who honor all of who we really are, no longer asking us to fit into spaces that smother or restrict. We will no longer hand our worth over to those who squandered it. We will learn to love ourselves as fiercely as the God who first called us beloved.
So keep pressing forward, little one. Love yourself with a fierceness that will feel strange at first. Hold that love like fire in your hands. Because the little girl who thinks she is not enough will one day become the woman who knows that enough was written into her bones from the very beginning.
Always,
Your Future Self
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