Living in the present for the future.

You’re down, you’re tired, you’re hurting, you’re bleeding, you’re regretting, you’re crying, you’ve somehow lost your way. You’ve given someone’s negative opinion of you far too much credit. You’ve let a failed relationship, failed marriage and failed friendship make you fearful of connecting again. You’ve allowed someone’s poor treatment of you to shift the way you see yourself.

I know you’ve been through some difficulties, We all have, everyone has. We all have our share of brokenness, discouragement, emptiness, and defeat. We’ve all lost people. We’ve all been cheated on or left by someone we loved. We’ve all floundered in our faith or slipped somewhere on the path. We’ve all fought demons, illness, mental issues, and pain. We’ve all been let down, had enemies, or made enemies of ourselves. We’ve all had days when we question whether we have the strength to continue.

This is not meant to take your problems and shove them to the side, make light of them, or diminish them in comparison to anyone else’s. This is to let you know that you aren’t alone, we are many even the people you see happy have had their share. This is to let you know that you can, and will, rise. Many have had your share of situation but have made the best out of the worst.

The first step is acknowledging, and believing that you can. And that you will. You must shake off the heavy blanket of fear that’s resting on your shoulders its past, and its gone. You must learn that it’s okay to let go, healthy to let go. You must know that always looking backwards, always looking behind you will not help you move forward. You got pregnant at a tender age and he left thats ok, You messed up somehow still fine we all have anyways.

You must realize that there are good days ahead of you, and you won’t always feel the way you do right now. This won’t be an easy process. Not by any means. If you’re struggling with serious depression or broken heart, you must seek help because you can’t fight through alone we have comrades in your fair share of challanges. And that’s okay. Getting help is strong, not weak. Its actually helpful to admit that you have a challenge. Then you must trust in your God, trust in yourself, trust that you will overcome, and trust that there are people in your life who will love and support and fight with you, no matter how low you feel. And then you must move forward, inch by inch, step by step, to freedom.

There comes a time when you must stop letting your past define your future, neither should you let it detect the next person you are to be with, let the past stay in the past. When you must stop wallowing in self-pity and get back on your feet Jesus would say to you rise up and walk simple. You have stayed too long. When you must face it and flush it for the pain in your heart simply need to accept what it cant change. When you must acknowledge that you’ve let yourself feel negative for far too long.

There comes a time when you are only looking behind you, so much so, that you can’t move ahead and forget of the future that awaits you. You cant live your past again its gone better do the corrections on the future. When you find yourself running a reel in your head of all that you’ve lost instead of all that you’ve gained. When you see that you are no longer thankful, but bitter.

You must give yourself a chance to properly heal, to let what has happened to you shape you in positive ways instead of only negative. You must allow light back into your life through the people who love you, through self-help books, through exercise or meditation, through positive self-talk, through faith, through a change in focus, through simply believing that you will move on and be okay. Of all other things dont forget God who is the healer to help you through the process.

You must stop letting your mind be clouded by thoughts of what you no longer have, of how you’ve been mistreated, of how you hate the woman or man you’ve become. It’s never too late to change, to start over, to begin again, to rewrite your story. It’s never too late to forgive yourself and others, and let your pain loosen its tight grip on your soul.

I know it may feel like you can’t get through this. I know you might have tried, but failed again and again. I know you may have started to identify yourself with this pain, may have let it become a part of you that you’re strangely afraid to lose.

But you are not defined by your pain, by your past, by what has broken you. You are defined by how you believe and by how you rise. So don’t give up hope. Don’t lose faith. Don’t let yourself believe that this is all there is.

This is a process. A hard, but necessary process and it starts right now. So Stop. Stop telling yourself you can’t. Stop telling yourself you’re not worthy. Stop telling yourself you won’t make it. Stop telling yourself sadness is all you’ll ever know.

You can’t let your past pave your future path. You will get through; all you need is you.