I know life feels exhausting living this way.

You put expectations on yourself that you would never put on other people.

You speak to yourself like you would never speak to other people.

You run yourself down because if you don’t get it all done, (and get it done the right way) then you will beat yourself up.

But if we’re honest, friend?

You beat yourself up anyway.

Because that’s the tape that’s been replaying in your head over and over.

That’s what you know to do.

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I don’t know who spoke this into you. Maybe someone made you feel like you needed to be perfect or else they shamed you. If that’s the case I am so so sorry that you were not met with grace, patience and love like you should have been.

I’m not sure if it’s the enemy who has planted these lies so deeply into your mind that you believed, and now your brain feels hijacked by them. If that’s the case, it makes me so mad how he can steal your joy.

I don’t know how you got to this point . . . but I do know that you were never meant to live like this.

The constant belittling, the shaming, the negative self-talk that you do you all the time . . . it was never meant to be like that.

I say this to you with so much love because I genuinely get it, but . . . 

You are talking to God’s masterpiece that way.

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Those harsh and cruel words you have are being directed at something God himself formed with His hands and breathed His breath into.

You are treating someone who was made in His image as if they don’t deserve the love He has for them.

I know you wouldn’t do that to someone else.

So why to you?

I hope and pray that you will start to see yourself more like He does.

I hope you’ll start to untangle the lies that have been consuming your mind.

It wasn’t meant to be like this.

Please friend, try not being so hard on yourself.

Because that’s God’s daughter you are talking to.

This post originally appeared on The Unraveling by Kelli Bachara