Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

You want to be loved …. But not everyone loves you.
There are people you want to have a relationship with, who don’t love you
back …. And it hurts.
People misunderstand you.
You’re a complicated person, but others only see what’s on the outside and they jump to conclusions about you that aren’t true.

You have ideas you know are good, but others make fun of them as being weird.
You get blamed for problems that are not your fault.
You know that if people would only make the effort to get to know you; if they gave you the chance to reveal who you really are, they would understand you better and love you.

But you’re frustrated that this doesn’t always happen

Don’t let it get you down God, it happens to me too!

May you be blessed
With discomfort at easy answers,
Half-truths, and superficial relationships,
So that you will live
Deep in your heart.

May you be blessed
With anger at injustice, oppression, and
Exploitation of people and the earth
So that you will work for
Justice, equity, and peace.

May you be blessed
With tears to shed for those who suffer
So you will reach out your hand
To comfort them and
Change their pain into joy.

And may you be blessed
With the foolishness to think
That you can make a difference in the world,
So you will do the things
Which others say cannot be done.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.