Hey HOPEr,

I want to talk to you about honor today, and I want to say it plain because I think a lot of us have been carrying something heavy around this word for a long time.

Honor is not about perfection. It never has been. It’s about recognition. It’s about being able to look at the people who carried you, covered you, corrected you, and helped shape who you are, and seeing what they actually gave you. Some of them did it well. Some did it imperfectly. Some loved you in ways that left fingerprints, the good kind and the kind that still ache a little.

Honor lets you see what was given without being blinded by what was missing.

I know how hard that is. I know some of you are reading this thinking about a mother who tried but couldn’t reach you. A father who showed up for the bills but not the bedtime stories. A grandmother who covered the gaps everyone else left wide open. A friend who became family. Honor is not asking you to rewrite the story. It’s not asking you to pretend the hard parts weren’t hard.

Honor is asking you to stop keeping score.

Because keeping score is exhausting. It locks your heart in a courtroom that never adjourns. And when your heart lives in a courtroom, there is no room for gratitude to breathe.

What I’m learning, and what I want you to hear, is that honor is alignment with truth. The truth that someone gave you something. The truth that even imperfect love is still love. The truth that you are here, becoming who you are, partly because someone else poured into the soil of your life.

You can hold the hard and the holy in the same hand. That’s what honor does. It doesn’t deny. It aligns.

Scripture for today:

She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future. — Proverbs 31:25

Prayer:

Father, help me honor what was given without ignoring what was hard. Give me clarity and gratitude. Amen.

Today’s action:

Name one person who helped shape your life. Just one. Say their name out loud or write it down. Let yourself sit with what they gave you, even if it came in a complicated package.

You are covered. You are cared for. And you are not alone in this.

Waiting is never wasted when God is in it.

Love,

Dr. Lael

Want more daily reflections like this one? Join us inside HOPErs, our community for women learning to live covered and cared for. 

Join HOPErs here