There is a certain kind of strength that looks like holding everything together — managing, showing up, making it look easy — while quietly carrying more than anyone around you knows. It becomes so familiar that asking for help starts to feel like failure. But this is God’s voicemail for the ones who have been strong for too long. He is not waiting for you to figure it all out. He is waiting for you to finally put some of it down.

You don’t have to figure it all out before you sleep.

– Jacqueline Whitney

New Voicemail from God — 1:17 AM

You were never meant to carry all of this alone.

I see you holding it together for everyone else. I see your responsibilities, your worries. I see the grief that no one else knows about, the questions that don’t have answers yet. I see the weight of everything you’ve been managing while trying to make it look easy.

I never asked you to do this on your own.

You were made for connection. For community. For being held, not just for holding. The strength you’ve built isn’t meant to keep everyone else happy while you collapse underneath the weight of it all. It’s meant to know when to set things down. It’s meant to know when to ask for help, when to rest.

I’m right here. I’ve been right here. I’m not impressed by how much you can carry alone. I’m waiting for you to let me carry some of it for you.

Put it down. At least some of it. Tonight. You don’t have to figure it all out before you sleep. You don’t have to fix everything before tomorrow. You don’t have to be everything for everyone.

Let me hold what you can’t anymore. I’ve got you.

Jacqueline Whitney is the author Held: A 50 Day Devotional For Parents and All That You Deserve.