You have so much to offer.

Dear You,

You have so much to offer. You may not feel like it, but you do. God gave you all these gifts, all these dreams, all these desires, all of your personality traits and quirks. He doesn’t make mistakes. Yes, you have weaknesses, but in our weakest places is where He stands the strongest. He is such a gentleman, though. He doesn’t just storm into our souls and mark His territory. He knocks first. Gently. Then—when we are driven to the point of despair and desperation enough to open the door to our soul and, trembling, fall to our knees—He walks in, rolls up His sleeves, and gets to work. He takes our weakest areas and turns it into testimonies to inspire others. He takes the things that once gave us shame and turns them into things we can glorify Him with. He takes abuse, physical and psychological illness, addictions, idols, broken sexuality, self-mutilation, and uses it for an intimate relationship with Him that we would have never had without such desperate circumstances. Not only that, but He takes these things and uses them to show love to others. It’s such an exciting and humbling moment when you look at a friend, a family member, a spouse, a child, a ministry, and honestly say, “Yes, I struggled with this. But God gave me strength to overcome it because He knew you would come into my life. It was a difficult sacrifice because I felt false identity and security in it, or felt acceptable for a moment, or was trying to fill a legitimate need in an illegitimate way. But I loved you so much that I gave this up for you.”

You have so much to offer. But you don’t have to offer me anything because I will just love you anyways.

You don’t have to buy me anything. You don’t have to compliment me. You don’t have to start a conversation with me every chance there is. You don’t have to call me or send me text messages or have my phone number memorized. You don’t have to attend every event I plan, or help me with every event I plan. You don’t have to go to my birthday party or even remember my birthday. You don’t have to like every single thing I like.

You don’t have to have my life story memorized, and I don’t have to have your life story memorized. You don’t have to ask me the hard questions I like to be asked. You don’t have to give me advice. You don’t have to ask me for advice. You don’t have to think I’m the greatest person that has ever existed. You don’t even have to spend one-on-one time with me.

You don’t have to have known Jesus for a certain amount of time. You don’t have to hang out with a certain group of people. You don’t have to be of a certain way, personality, culture, ethnicity, gender, age, height, or weight. You don’t have to have sweet possessions or drive a sweet car. You don’t have to be able to buy sweet possessions or to be able to drive. You don’t have to look nice all of the time. You don’t have to look nice most of the time. You don’t even have to be nice all or most of the time. You don’t have to be someone you’re not.

You don’t have to have been “clean” all of your life. You don’t have to have never consumed a drop of alcohol ever. You don’t have to have never struggled with any kind of addiction. You don’t have to have unscarred wrists. You don’t have to have never lusted. You don’t have to be a virgin.

You don’t have to find me pretty, or mature, or godly, or strong. You don’t always have to be strong either. You don’t have to be the person who hands me a tissue box if I cry, and you don’t have to be the one who gives me a hug. You don’t have to be the one that comes and prays truth over me.

You don’t have to worry about me because I am in the palm of God’s hand.

I release you of all of these expectations I may hold over your head. Yes, there will be times when I will. Please forgive me of that, and the Lord will work those things out in my heart as He wishes. There will be times when I will not particularly like you. Regardless, you don’t have to offer me anything. 

There is nothing, absolutely nothing you have to do. 

I will just love you anyways.