April, 2025

<aside> 👋🏽 I woke up, it’s 9:20 AM on Good Friday & spontaneously I wanted to write, please enjoy!

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The Bible tells us to forgive, not just once or twice, but over and over again.

“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.’” (Matthew 18:21–22)

It sounds simple when you hear it or read it, right? “Just forgive and forget.” But if we’re being honest , truly honest, we know forgiveness is a journey. And it’s not just a journey you take alone, it’s one God has to walk you through, hand in hand.

It’s not easy to forgive people who hurt you.

It’s not easy to release the expectations you placed on them.

It’s not easy to come to terms with the pedestal you placed them on, and the disappointment that followed when they didn’t live up to it. Be

But today, I’m not even here to talk about forgiving others.

I’m here to talk about forgiving yourself.

Before I dive into that, though, I want to touch on something that is deeply connected: love.

We live in such a fallen, self-centered world. The culture is loud about “putting yourself first” and at surface level, it sounds empowering. But if we’re not careful, that kind of thinking becomes twisted. It becomes selfish. It becomes worldly. And without even knowing it, you can begin to idolize yourself in your own heart.

Jesus gave us two commandments, not ten, not twenty, just two:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind… and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)

But how do you love your neighbor as yourself when you don’t even know how to love yourself?

The world teaches us to “love ourselves” in all the wrong ways, through pride, through vanity, through performance. But true self-love is rooted in intimacy with God. When you walk closely with Him, He begins to show you how He sees you, not through the lens of shame, guilt, or the past, but through the eyes of love, mercy, and redemption.

And the more you sit with that love, the kind that says you are chosen, royal, set apart (1 Peter 2:9), the more you begin to reflect it back toward yourself. Not in a selfish way, but in a holy way. A way that says: If God calls me worthy, then I will not call myself worthless.

In my own life, I joke sometimes that I have “daddy issues” with God, my Father, haha, but not the kind you think. My Father in heaven loves me so much, so completely, that I want to replicate that love. The way He sees me makes me want to care for myself the same way. His tenderness toward me has healed what I didn’t even know was broken.

And so… back to forgiveness.