When the page is your only confidant
Do you ever feel like you’re holding your breath?
Like you’re carrying a feeling, a frustration, a sadness, a secret joy or a confusing doubt.
You just can’t share it with anyone.
It isn’t because you don’t have good people in your life. It is because you don’t have the words to share or you’re afraid of being judged it could even be that you think they wouldn’t quite understand.
So you hold it in, close to your chest and you hold it in your body.
It gets heavy.
The Weight of Silence
As introverts, we often process things internally but sometimes even our inner world feels too small for our biggest feelings.
This is where faith can feel lonely. We wonder if we’re the only ones who feel this way. We wonder if our honest, messy feelings are “too much” even for God.
The Safest Place on Earth
This is when the journal page becomes more than just a notebook. It becomes the safest confidant in the entire world.
The page never interrupts. It never offers easy answers. It never offers platitudes. It never shames you. It never tells you to “look on the bright side.”
It simply, quietly, holds whatever you bring to it.
It is the one place on earth where you can be completely, beautifully be honest.
I believe this with all my heart when we are honest, we stand on holy ground. This is where God meets us. He does not meet us in our polished prayers. He meets us in our raw, true, human hearts.
yOUR pROMPTS
Prompts for the Heart That Needs to Be Heard
If you are carrying something heavy today, use these prompts to lay it down.
- The Unspoken Word: “The one feeling I haven’t been able to say out loud to anyone this week is…”
- The Hard Question: “If I could ask God one completely honest, raw question right now (with no fear of judgment), I would ask…”
- A Safe Release: “The thing I just need to get OUT of my head is…” (Write it. Scribble it. Even if it is angry. Even if it is sad. Let the page hold it.)
- The Need Beneath: “In this feeling of (loneliness/frustration/sadness), the one thing my soul truly needs right now is…”
yOUR aCTION pOINT
Your Action Point: The “Sacred, Private Letter”
Sometimes we need to speak to someone who isn’t listening.
- Turn to a fresh page in your journal. (Or use a loose, blank piece of paper if you prefer).
- Write a “letter” to the one person or situation you can’t speak to. This could be a loved one. It could be someone who hurt you. It could even be yourself.
- Do not filter. Let your heart pour onto the page.
- Close your journal when you are done.
- Release. If you wrote on loose paper, you can tear it up. Let it go.
This letter is not for sending. It is for releasing.
You have been heard. You have been held. That is enough.
With care, Debbera
