Children need to know that they matter, that someone in this big, scary, beautiful world thinks that they are the sun, moon, and stars all rolled int… - L.R. Knost

the fact is that hurting people hurt people, and children raised with condemnation in whatever form it takes are hurting people. Period. Words matter.

The world told you
that you had to hide your pain,
to be small and quiet,
so you wouldn't rock the boat.
And you believed.
Then one day you saw
the silent pain in the eyes
of a small and quiet girl
in a boat bound
for nowhere.
And a warrior awoke.
You freed the girl from the silent shackles
and told her that her story mattered,
to tell it deep and wide and loud,
to set the boat ablaze
with every fierce and fiery word
so all the world could hear
and heal.
And you believed.

The only way to heal from the pain
of the past is to walk through that pain
in the present. It's terrifying, I know.
It feels safer to just let the pain continue
to smolder in the darkest parts of yourself.
But the dark parts need tending, too, my friend.
Don't be afraid to breathe life back into those
embers of old pain, to rekindle the fires of
unhealed hurts. The flames aren't there to burn
you. They are there to light your way through
pain to healing. You can walk through courageous
and confident or shaking in your boots. It doesn't
matter. Just walk through it. Hurt will transform
into hope, wounds into wisdom, suffering into
scars that tell of battles won and lost and of a
human who survived it all.