Faith. Women. Empowerment.

The pain of loosing a loved one to a substance you can’t understand is most days, unbearable.

You’re clouded with thoughts of,

IF only I could have related.

I wanted to love you through the pain that made you start.

IF only I could have been there, I could have stopped it.

The reality is that you can’t relate,

You can’t understand.

You can’t sympathize,

because you haven’t been there.

You don’t know why they got high and then begged their loved ones for forgiveness in the morning, but they meant it.

You saw that longing to be accepted in their eyes, acceptance for the battle they were fighting, that they didn’t want to be a part of, but day after day, were drug back into the arena with.

The reality is that you can’t relate,

You can’t understand.

You can’t sympathize,

because you haven’t been there.

You don’t know why they got high and then begged their loved ones for forgiveness in the morning, but they meant it.

You saw that longing to be accepted in their eyes, acceptance for the battle they were fighting, that they didn’t want to be a part of, but day after day, were drug back into the arena with.

You don’t know why they cut off family and friends like they meant nothing to them and they no longer needed their presence or love, but they did.

They didn’t want the people they loved more than anything to see the fight they were up against, and the monster that they were trying to suppress, because it wasn’t them and they were fighting to get the old self back.

They knew the loved one didn’t deserve that side of them, so shutting them out was easiest.

We, as those who haven’t ever been in drug & alcohol addiction, Can’t and don’t understand.

What we can understand is love, empathy, compassion, forgiveness, the longing to be understood.

Have empathy for what they have been through that brought them to this point, where they felt they had no other choice.

Make space for forgiveness, they are fighting a battle you know nothing about.

Show them compassion, you are the person they are wrestling to come back to. To take hold of the person they were before the drugs and the alcohol.

Be the person that doesn’t give up.

That continues to pray.

That believes in a way maker.

That miracles still happen and

God is still working.

Be their hope, in a world of unknowing and judgment to their current circumstance.

In the arena you’ve never entered—be the light that they follow to come home.