Writefully Me✨

There was a time when I tried to hold onto the woman I used to be.

Not because she was happier, but because she was familiar.

She knew how to survive.

She knew how to keep quiet.

She knew how to bend without breaking—at least on the outside.

But growth has a way of gently loosening what no longer fits.

I am not who I was—and that is not a loss.

It is evidence of living.

The woman I used to be did the best she could with what she knew at the time. She carried dreams while carrying pain. She smiled through seasons that asked too much of her. She stayed in places she had already outgrown because leaving felt like failure.

But it wasn’t failure.

It was preparation.

Growth doesn’t arrive with noise or celebration. Sometimes it comes quietly, through disappointment, through unanswered prayers, through moments where you realize you can’t keep pretending anymore.

I didn’t wake up one day transformed.

I woke up tired of abandoning myself.

So I started listening.

To my body when it needed rest.

To my spirit when it needed honesty.

To my heart when it whispered, there has to be more than this.

Outgrowing old versions of yourself can feel uncomfortable. There is grief in becoming. You mourn the parts of you that were once necessary—your endurance, your silence, your constant giving. But even grief can be holy when it leads you forward.

God does not shame us for becoming.

He walks with us as we do.

I no longer owe loyalty to who I was when I didn’t know better. I owe compassion to her—and freedom to who I am becoming.

If you are not who you were last year, last month, or even yesterday, let that be your victory. Growth is not betrayal. It is alignment.

And today, I choose alignment over familiarity.

I choose grace over guilt.

I choose becoming.

Because I am not who I was—

and that is okay.

Closing prayer

God,

Thank You for every version of me that survived what I didn’t understand at the time.

Thank You for the woman I was, and the woman I am becoming.

Teach me to release guilt when I grow,

to honor my past without living there,

and to trust that becoming is part of Your design.

Help me walk forward with grace,

choosing alignment over familiarity,

and peace over permission.

Amen.

Closing affirmation

I honor who I was.

I embrace who I am becoming.

Growth is not betrayal—it is grace.