Strength looks different for every individual.
For one person, strength may look like standing up and using their voice in a firm way, to protect boundaries that they usually never set up.
For another person, strength may look like having a smile on their face and a determined “joy” in their life, despite the hurts and scars that sting every morning that they wake up.
Still… for someone else… strength may look like not letting life chase the “belief” in goodness, right out of them.
Strength can show up in so many ways.
But one thing I never believe strength shows up as… is meanness. Harsh tones. Bitterness. Payback. Or Indifference.
Strength - although it has a solid, firm, determined, resolute component to it…. Also involves gentleness, compassion, forgiveness, freedom, and love.
For even though those are “soft” words - they take great strength to have when you have open wounds, deep scars, and painful memories.
Strength.
It’s hard to grow strength. But it’s like a muscle. Once used, it gets easier to re-use. We just need to tap into that part of us that is tough to get into. The part that acknowledges all is not as we wish it would have been. That all is not as we wish it IS. But we refuse to let that knowledge define us, corrupt us, steer us into another direction, or.. simply put.. win.
I pray strength for your life. And for mine. I pray God will breathe strength into my heart when I want (and have a right to) criticize, or grow hard. I pray God will grow strength in my soul when I’m weary.
Whether one day it looks like a cheerful disposition, and another day a silent determination not to engage - may we all learn that strength that comes from the Lord is always directed towards TRUTH and GOODNESS for everyone involved.
True strength has wisdom, discernment, and purpose always intertwined in it.
Let us draw on THAT.
