When will you be 'good enough'

compliments become a trap

They were teenage roads I knew too well
memory maps I could trace like the palm of my hand

There I would lose myself in seconds
but now these paths are long gone
their silhouettes swallowed in white fog

and somewhere in that fog, I met Hope
She felt new but somehow familiar.
She said: “We’re no strangers. I was always nearby”

Tears hung on my curly black lashes blinding my sight
so, I never saw her in the crowd or the mirror

She didn’t speak for long, but her presence lingered
Like a wave that ripples on your skin, 
even as you lay in bed that night

And it made me think... how clarity doesn’t always come clean
sometimes, it just reveals the clutter

where our minds seem so organized
but really, no better than our messy rooms
the one we tidy just enough to fit in
the same way we smooth our faces to present

wiring us to believe that beauty means projecting
someone else’s reflection
that our worth depends on how well we hide ourselves

that every curve is evidence against us
as if we were born on trial in a courtroom of mirrors
where the verdict and rules just keep changing

But God? 
He never played that game.

He didn’t wait for you to wear makeup
or fix this or that

to see you
to choose you,
to love you

He called you good
before you knew what “pretty” meant
before you had language for shame
before you performed for belonging
before you… yourself ...even asked the question

Am I really good enough?

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Heart Call:

If compliments can build you up, they can also tear you down.
So, real confidence has to flow: from the inside → out.

• What compliments you can’t live without?

• What would it look like to ask God

  what He sees when He looks at you?

  (p.s. He cares about what you feel when you look in the mirror.)

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Photo credits: Elijah Grimm.