The Brave Art Of MotherhoodSample

Taking the First Step

If you want to experience joy, if you want to stop pretending, then it will require something from you. You will have to let go of that facade, that mask, or the good-girl (or bad-girl) image you’ve clung to. It will require that you change. 

Change isn’t easy. 

I had to evaluate who I was and every excuse I’d used for being where I was in life. Even now, sharing honestly about that time and how I hid is difficult for me. But it’s important that you understand the broken-down me. So often we see just the after in a person’s life and don’t get to know the before, the person inside, the person behind the masks. But I know that if you can see the “before” me, the me who tried to be good enough, the me who was stuck, you can understand the necessity of change and getting your life back to who God created you to be. 

I became the woman standing in the middle of her life with nothing but hope, faith, and bravery to reclaim her ticking timeline of days on this earth. This wasn’t when I was twenty without kids but rather when I was in the busiest season of motherhood, when there didn’t seem to be a moment for self or for change. I no longer had the luxury of living behind excuses but was forced to change my life. And in that place of brokenness, I found not only life and hope but also faith again. 

Your life and experiences are different from mine. Don’t compare your normal or your dramas with mine; instead see if my stories unearth parallels in your own journey. But know this: I bet there are places where you hide too. I want you to start looking at what you hide behind. What are those things? What keeps you from removing the masks and living in the light of freedom? 

Hiding is a gigantic weight on your life. There’s not much freedom in walking around dragging weights with you. And it’s exhausting trying to keep the illusion maintained. 

I know it’s scary to venture into the unknown. I know that first step toward real and positive change can be terrifying. But I also know you can find joy on the other side. 

Live openly, proud of the entire you. 

What are you hiding from today?