For a long time, I thought strength meant carrying everything on my own. I learned how to survive, how to work hard, how to keep going even when life felt heavy. But God has been teaching me that survival is not the same thing as living fully in Him.

Over the last few years, God has been doing a deep work in my heart. He has been teaching me to surrender the things I tried to control, to heal from the things I carried for too long, and to find my identity not in what I’ve accomplished or what others think of me, but in who He says I am.

As a single mother, I’ve seen God provide for me in ways I couldn’t have planned. I’ve watched Him give me strength on days when I felt like I had nothing left. I’ve seen Him use my story; the difficult parts included not as something to hide, but as a way to show His faithfulness.

One of the biggest things God has been teaching me is that He doesn’t just meet us in the moments where everything is put together. He meets us in the messy middle. He walks with us through the rebuilding, the questions, and the seasons where we’re becoming who He created us to be.

My prayer now is that my life reflects His grace that people can see that God doesn’t waste our pain. He can redeem our stories and use every season to draw us closer to Him.

I’m still growing, still learning, and still being transformed, but I’m grateful that I don’t have to walk this journey alone.  And I am clinging onto Romans 8:28 “God working all things together for good.”

~ Abril