You Don’t Have To Wear Your Pain Like A Scar

Sweet one, this world is hard sometimes. We stumble, we fall, we fail, we lose our sense of self, or get lost in another person so much so that our lives spin out of control when they’re no longer beside us. We lie, we get hurt, we stand powerless as the people around us break or change or pass and sometimes we just want to close our eyes and wish it all away.

Your heart hurts sometimes, I know.

And maybe right now you’re reading this and nodding your head. Your mind’s spinning back like a video loop, rewinding to all the painful memories and you can feel them, in this exact moment—a dull ache in your chest. Maybe right now you’re remembering someone you lost, you’re recounting memories of their face, of that smile they wore proudly across their lips.

Maybe you’re remembering how your life used to be—simple, carefree.

Maybe you’re reading this and can’t help but wonder why. Why do bad things happen? Why do we get so broken? Why does it sometimes feel like we’re running in circles with no real direction? Those unanswered questions are scary. They weigh down on your mind; they nestle into the open crevices of your heart and make homes there, pulling and dragging you lower and lower.

You walk through your days feeling empty. You can’t help but look at everyone else’s life with envy, can’t help but wish that you, your circumstances, and your fate were different.

Can’t help but long to be anywhere but here.

You carry your burdens on tired shoulders. You drag your guilt along like a tired, heavy bag at your feet. You hang your head in hopelessness, shuffling forward, barely managing to get through another day.

But you don’t have to live your life like that, sweet one. You don’t.

You don’t have to wear your pain like a scar, display your hurt like a badge, live with a label of brokenness.

You don’t have to spend your days looking backwards, wishing for something better, aching when you think of waking up tomorrow. Feeling hopeless before the next moment even begins.

You are a beautiful, wonderful soul. You are strong and confident person. You are made of millions of tiny cells, fibers, muscles, and threads. You are sewn together in love and greatness. You were made for better things.

Please take the burdens off your shoulders and give them to God, give them to the wind, hold them out in the sunshine and let them evaporate into the sky. Take the pain you’ve buried in your heart and release it. Unlock the chains, allow your spirit to be free and unhindered again. Start anew.

You are not the sins of your past. You are not what has tried to defeat you. You are not loss. You are not death. You are not what has made you slip and fall. Because you rose. Because you began again, and are still beginning.

You don’t have to always look back and what has happened and guard yourself for the future. You don’t have to become cold and afraid, harsh and timid. You don’t have to allow circumstances to define you, or pain to have a hold on who you will become.

You have the power to erase those scars from your heart.
You have the power to continue, to rise, to rebuild.

Every day you open your eyes—and that’s where it begins. So continue forward in that strength.

You are broken, but not irreparable. You will heal and begin again.