Not everyone is meant to understand the version of you that’s growing.
Angel: Why is this season requiring her to be so misunderstood?
God: Because the people who can fully understand her can’t reach her until she stops needing them to.
The strength of knowing who she is even when no one else does.
– Jacqueline Whitney
Angel: What do you mean?
God: She’s been so dependent on being understood that she’s been compromising who she is to make sure people get her. Explaining herself. Justifying her choices. Making her growth digestible for people who don’t actually want to see her grow.
Angel: That’s exhausting.
God: It is. So I’m taking that away from her for a while. I’m letting her be misunderstood. By family. By friends. By people she loves. Not to punish her — to free her.
Angel: Free her from what?
God: From the need for approval. From the belief that her worth is tied to being understood. From the work of trying to translate herself to people who don’t speak her language anymore.
Angel: Will it hurt?
God: It already does. But on the other side of being misunderstood is something she’s never had before. The freedom to be fully herself without needing everyone to get it. The peace of belonging to herself first. The strength of knowing who she is even when no one else does.
Angel: And then?
God: Then I’ll bring the people who do understand her. But she has to learn she’s whole without them first.
Jacqueline Whitney is the author Held: A 50 Day Devotional For Parents and All That You Deserve.
