The Tribune

By ShaKeisha Johnson

I don’t like losing anything. So you can guess how I feel about saying goodbye to those that mean something to me. I tried that whole not caring thing.

Question: Never love and never get hurt, right? Answer: Wrong!

The fact that we are consciously moving into relationships with a mindset to hold back a great portion of our affection only shows how damaged we truly are. Or we’re not moving at all because we are so broken we don’t truly trust anyone to love us.

I haven’t been able to trust anyone to love me fully, until recently. I honestly have never felt that anyone would love me and stick around. Not until now has God brought me to a place where I can begin to feel worthy of love, let alone allowing someone to love me. There was always this fear in me that someday I would trust someone to love me and they would realise how unworthy of love I truly was.

I spent years breaking my own heart and taking men I called boyfriends along for the ride. God changed my heart. Sometimes God will have to bring you to the end of yourself for you to get to the beginning of your breakthrough. I was broken, so broken, that I could not even trust God fully because true love was a concept I just could not grasp. My experience taught me of love that was limited and conditional, love that was spoken, but never practiced, so I had to learn what love was. Jesus is the best teacher you can ever ask for.

My soul leaps with joy when I think of how much He loves me, how special I truly am. My eyes opened when I learned the truth about me.

After you’ve experienced this kind of love, the half-hearted sometimes kinda love that you had been accustomed to accepting now feels like an insult. There are people that simply cannot love you the way you need to be loved, and I’m not talking just romantically either. There are family members and friends that will incessantly hurt you while showering you with praises and claims of love, all because just like you are were or are broken.

You have to learn to let go and distance yourself from these people, because hurt people in turn hurt those around them. Don’t put it off. Don’t keep them around on the off chance that they will change because you are waiting on the right time. There’s never a right time to say goodbye.

Today’s challenge: say goodbye. There is a name that was placed on your heart; there is some person, some connection, hindering your healing, your growth, your progress. Release them, today. There may even be more than one in your life. Just do it! Trust God, not your dysfunction.

Live a little, love a lot and be a blessing!

• ShaKeisha C.Johnson is a singles and relationship coach. For questions and comments e-mail coachkeish@hotmail.com.