Welcome back to Self-Love Journaling with God. And welcome to year two. We are year two of this journey together. If you are new here, I am Shonda, your host. I am a licensed clinical therapist who weaves cognitive behavior therapy and faith together as we journal our way through the deepest places of the heart. On this podcast, we don't skim the surface. We slow down, ask the hard questions, and put pen to paper with God as we heal our self-image, learn to love ourselves the way he does, and gently step into the abundant life he's always had for us. I'll be honest, 2025 was a learning curve. Building this podcast stretched me in ways I didn't expect, and it was you, your messages, your listening, your encouragement that kept me going. Now, as we step into 2026, I'm so excited to explore where journaling with God can take us next. And I want to hear from you. What would you like to journal about? Share it in the show notes. Journaling workshops and live QA chats are coming later this year, and I can't wait to grow together. Now let me ask you this as we begin today's episode. Have you ever wondered if something is wrong with you when really you're just exhausted from caring too much for too long? Take a slow breath with me. Inhale and exhale. Just let that question rest in the room for a second. Because when we're tired, really tired, our minds start telling stories. And one of the most powerful stories is I must be broken. But I want to offer you a different possibility today. What if you're not broken? What if you are weary? Let me share something I have learned both personally and walking with other beautiful women. A lot of us have been the strong one for so long. We don't even recognize ourselves when we finally hit a wall. And when that wall comes, when the tears come quicker, when you're more irritable, when small things feel heavy, when you can't focus, when you want to pull away, we don't call it tiredness. We call it failure. We say things like, I'm a mess. I can't get it together. Why am I like this? I'm falling behind. I should be stronger than this. But exhaustion has a way of making everything feel like a character flaw. And I just want to say this tenderly to you. Being tired doesn't mean you're failing. It often means you've been faithful and overextended. It means you've been carrying things, emotional things, mental things, family things, unseen things without enough support, without enough rest, without enough space to be human. Here's the core truth of it all I want to teach today. Your tiredness is not proof you're broken. It's often proof you've been in survival mode for too long. When a woman has had to function through disappointment or keep peace in a tense moment or be the reliable one when others were unpredictable, or show up for everyone while neglecting her own heart, her system learns keep going, don't stop, don't feel, don't need. And you can do that for a while. You can push through, you could be impressive, you can be fine. But eventually, your body and your soul start waving a little white flag. Not because you're weak, but because you're not meant to live without rest. Sometimes what we call brokenness is actually burnout. Sometimes what we call spiritual failure is actually emotional depletion. Sometimes what we call laziness is actually a nervous system begging for safety. And I want you to hear this real clear. God is not disappointed in your tiredness, he's compassionate toward it. And this is where God's heart meets us so tenderly and wholly. God does not look at you and label you broken. He doesn't even look at us like that. He looks at you and sees you as weary and still worthy and still held. In Matthew 11, 28, he says this, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Notice what he doesn't say. He doesn't say, Come to me when you have fixed it. Come to me when you're calmer. Come to me when you're doing better. He says, Come to me tired, come to me burdened. Come to me already caring too much. That's Jesus right there. This is an invitation, not a demand. A welcome, not a performance review. So many, so oftentimes, that's what we we think it is, a performance review. So let's take a moment together here. If you can, place a hand over your heart just as a gentle signal to yourself. I'm here and I'm listening. And I want you to open your journal, get your journal, and let's go over this first prompt. It says, What am I carrying right now that has left me emotionally tired? And I want you to write some things down. You might name responsibilities, you might name relationships, maybe expectations, spoken or unspoken. You might name grief or uncertainty or decision fatigue. And if you need more time, pause the audio. There's no rush here. And so I want you to circle one thing. You need permission to rest from this week. This is your action step. Not forever, not for the rest of your life, just this week. Because rest doesn't have to be dramatic to be holy. Sometimes rest is one boundary. Maybe one, not today. One less thing on the list. So let's jump to prompt number two. If God were speaking to my tired heart, what might he want me to hear? Let this be gentle. Let this be simple to you. Let it sound like God's kindness, not pressure. It says, if God were speaking to my tired heart, what might he want me to hear? If you're unsure what to write, you can start with this daughter or my beloved, or even here. These are things to kind of jot down on your journal. And again, pause the audio if you need more time. There's no rush here. This is our journaling time. And here's an action step. I want you to underline one phrase that feels comforting or true to you. Even if part of you argues with it, even if you don't fully believe it yet, sometimes healing begins with simply letting truth sit near you. If all you did today was name your tiredness, that was enough. I mean that because naming it is a form of honesty. And honesty is where God meets us. You are not behind, you're not failing, you're not broken for needing rest. You are human and you are loved. And sometimes the most faithful thing you can do is stop pretending you're okay. And let God care for you in the places you've been quietly carrying alone. Now let me pray with you right here. Father God, I just thank you that you don't shame us for being tired. Thank you that you invite the weary close. For the woman listening right now, the one who feels heavy, stretched, thin, emotionally drained, would you meet her with your tenderness? Would you help her release what isn't hers to carry? And would you quiet the inner voice that caused her broken? And would you replace it with your truth that she is loved, held, and safe with you? Jesus, you promised rest. Teach her what rest looks like in her real life, in small choices, in gentle boundaries, in holy pauses. We receive your care today in Jesus' name. Amen. So if you want something simple to support you after this episode, I made a free emotional reset journaling bundle that you can use anytime your heart feels overloaded. No pressure, just a soft place to land. And I just want to thank you for spending this time with me. Remember, every open journal is an invitation for God to move. Until next time, keep rising, keep journaling, and keep becoming who God made you to be.