Dear Friend,

This is where I get to tell you how amazing you are :)

We all have break downs; we just don't tell everyone about them.  

Allowing your heart to become bitter and hardened is an option.  But you can also choose to learn to trust again.  Much easier said than done.  What has been done to you has left a huge impression on your heart.  Hell yes it's hard to trust after that.  But you can.  And it's a daily task.  Sometimes moment to moment.  Some days it might come easy.  Others it might not.  

Some days you'll have the courage.  Some days you won't.  

And that's ok.

It's all ok.  

There's nothing wrong with you.  You're hurting.  You're scared.  You're vulnerable.  Not easy pills to swallow.  And sometimes in all of our trying and powering through.....the weight of it all catches up to us.  And we need to stop.

I'm glad you didn't leave town.  I'm glad you broke down.  Sometimes what we need is what we run from the hardest.  God is speaking to you.....otherwise your heart wouldn't be in knots.  I don't know what he is saying, but I know this....

One day you will stand on the other side of it all and know that all of it has made you a better man.

You are already such an amazing person!  God is digging deeper.  Matters of the heart hurt the most.  Some days it might even be hard to look in the mirror....

But you won't regret it.  

This may very well be one of the hardest things you'll ever go through. And there will be more too.  Loved ones will die.  Dreams will die too....

But in the midst of all that....new people and new things are born as well.  Inside of you.....and around you.....

And that is our hope.  That all things will be made new.  And they will.  Because that's God's promise.  

A break down.....it might feel like the end.  But it's also a beginning....

It hurts.  Like ripping off the bandaid. But whatever is underneath needs to breathe.  It wants to heal.  

What a beautiful place to start....

Fresh air.  New life.  Renewed hope.  Surrender. 

You are loved!  Just as you are. Not for what you do.  Because you're God's child.  He hurts when you hurt. And he never leaves your side....

You may be walking through the dark right now.....but he is lighting the way.  You will stumble.  He's there.  It will  hurt.  He's there.  

Keep telling him where you are.  He wants to have those conversations with you....and him you can trust.  He doesn't let us down.  People do that.  And then he teaches us how to forgive.