Your capacity to endure is far greater than you think.

Every hard thing you have ever faced and withstood has expanded you … but not just for pain, also for joy!

What has stretched you until you thought you would break has created space where you can receive incredible grace, incomprehensible love, and unimaginable wisdom.

The hard things have softened you. 

Be encouraged today. It hurt you, but it did not destroy you. A newness awaits you. God longs for you to allow Him to fill your emptiness and set things right in your heart.

Even now, as you read this, both hope and doubt stir. “Maybe this newness is available for someone else, but not for me.”

It is for you, dear one, for you!

Hand God what hurts. Right now. Surrender all that was mean and harsh and uncalled for and unfair. Journal it, or find a trusted friend who will hear you with healing as the goal (not commiseration). Whatever you do, bring it to speech. Wrap words around your emotions and feelings. Say out loud what you wished you could have or would say to those who hurt you. Cry bitter tears. Mourn loss or betrayal. You must process the pain if it is going to have the chance to release you from the cycle of painful memory.

You won’t forget it, but you can heal from it. Properly processed and handed to the Father, trauma does not have to trigger fear or pain. You can remember without reliving it.

Don’t waste your sorrow; ask God to give you insight into it. Let Him help you grow from it so you can emerge stronger, wiser, with your capacity enlarged.

His justice is a mystery, and yet it runs through time as an unbroken thread.

He has not forgotten you. Not forsaken you. Your wounding has not escaped His notice.

He is there. He is with you. He is for you. He is—even when you cannot see it—at work, and He has promised to work this for your good.

Dare to trust Him. Dare to bring this before Him real and raw and unfiltered.

Hard things surrendered will open your life to beauty and kindness beyond comprehension. From the ashes, beauty. From the pain, compassion. From the endurance, strength. From the surrender, peace and indescribable joy.