The Narrow Way

For so long, I loved from survival.

I loved from fear.

From emptiness.

From the desperate hope that if I gave enough, maybe someone would stay.

Maybe I could finally earn what I never received as a child.

I didn’t know it then, but I was loving people from a place of deep need, not from wholeness, but from a wound.

And I didn’t know how tired that kind of love would make me.

Because love without boundaries isn’t love, it’s self-abandonment.
And trying to pour out what you never received will leave you running on fumes.

But Jesus stepped in.
And He did what only Love Himself can do… He filled me.

He didn’t just patch the broken parts.
He rebuilt the foundation.
He reminded me that I am a daughter to Him.

And now?
Now I’m learning how to love while healing.

I’m not perfect.
I still catch myself wanting to please, wanting to prove.
But Jesus reminds me, I have nothing to prove.

I’m already chosen.
I’m already loved.
I’m already safe.

Now I love because I am loved.
Not to be accepted, but because I am accepted.
Not to be seen, but because He already sees me.

This love looks different.
It has boundaries.
It has wisdom.
It doesn’t try to fix everyone.
It doesn’t sacrifice peace to avoid discomfort.
It speaks truth.
It says no.
It rests.

This kind of love reflects Jesus, not codependency, not desperation, not fear of being alone.

Because when I know I’m loved by the One who never leaves, I don’t have to beg for crumbs at anyone else’s table.

And now, when I give love, it’s not to fill a void.
It’s to overflow from a place that Jesus Himself has filled.

This is what healing does.
This is what love does.

It changes the way we walk into rooms.
It changes the way we see people, not through a lens of pain, but through the eyes of grace.

It teaches us that we don’t have to chase love anymore.
We get to carry it.
Because we know the Source.
And His name is Jesus.