Spring has sprung here in the United States and all around the world! April 2026 is finally here! I do love Springtime. What is your favorite season friend?

This may be one of the last blogs I write before I leave for my Camino, as I take my very first sabbatical. If I write more before I go, they will be a bonus, but right now my mind and heart are already somewhere between home and Spain. I've been walking a lot, cleaning things out, preparing, thinking, praying, and trying to be honest about what I can carry, and what I cannot carry… on this long and holy road.

As I reflect on this past Holy Week and I sit down to reflect on all Christ has done for me, I can't help but think about redemption and sacrifice, truth and love, and how complicated and beautiful life can be when I am following Jesus. We live in the real world with real people and real relationships, and our relationships can get super sticky and scary at times. When that happens, we can feel small, stuck, weak, and afraid.

Friends, it's okay to feel those things, but we don't need to stay there, in the midst of our emotions. As Piglet said to Pooh many years ago: It takes courage to grow up and become all you really are.

Today's question: How do I honor God's heart for redemption without betraying my own safety, sanity, and my God-given worth?

LeAnne's Response:

My friend, that is not a small question. Oh, how I wish you were right here with me on my daily walk, rather than on the other side of a computer screen. I want to invite you to imagine that we are walking the trail together right now, chatting as we go. If it's okay with you, that's how I'm going to approach my response to your very thoughtful question.

Please imagine that we're chatting as we walk together in the unforced rhythm of grace.

Before we can even talk about redemption, I want to pull back the curtain and name the elephant in many rooms all over the globe right now: the fear of betrayal.

I want to honor the fact that you are here reading this blog and that you thoughtfully submitted this question. Because of that, I already know a couple of things about you. The posture of your heart is tender, and you would like to remain reverent. And living right alongside that desire is the fear of betraying those closest to you – a husband, a friend, a parent, a child.

I was talking to God the other day about my own fear of betraying expectations. Maybe you can relate.

There is another type of betrayal, and it's sneaky and can become destructive: the betrayal of the worth God gave you when He made you in His image.

I had the privilege of being in a question-and-answer session with Leslie for our workshop titled “If He Doesn't Hit You, Is It Still Abuse?” Leslie did a beautiful job helping us all dispel some of the beliefs and lies we can hold onto. Many of the women who joined us expressed feeling stuck, scared, and afraid to speak up for truth. The topics of safety, sanity, and clarity came up multiple times throughout our time together.

When the workshop ended, I was struck by how easy it is to slip into self-betrayal. I came back to your question as I walked that afternoon, and then I sat down to write a few thoughts, I didn't want to miss an opportunity to learn and grow alongside so many of you.

Maintaining peace in the middle of destructive or difficult relationships is heart work.

Friend, don't believe that God asks His daughters to betray themselves in order to prove that they love Him – or someone else. Somewhere along the way, many women just like you were taught that enduring anything without complaint was godly, and that having needs, establishing boundaries, or setting limits meant they were selfish, rebellious, or not spiritual enough.

Is that a belief you hold?

I used to believe similar things. I'm still unlearning parts of those untruths today. As I type this, I am humbled at how deeply ingrained some of these ideas are – in my body, mind, soul, and spirit. As you read this, what do you notice inside yourself?

In preparation for my Camino, I've been cleaning out my pantry and refrigerator. I'll be gone for six weeks, and I don't want to come home to spoiled food, so I've been checking expiration dates and pulling things out. In the back of my pantry, I found a bottle of salad dressing, one of my favorites that I had never opened. When I pulled it out and looked at the expiration date, it read: January 2025. It is now the spring of 2026. That bottle had been sitting there for over a year past its expiration date, unopened, unused, and pushed to the back – totally forgotten.

So I threw it away and thought, Well, there goes five dollars right into the trash. What a waste.

But then a thought hit me deeper than I expected. These words kept running through my mind:

Expired. No longer any good. Worthless. Of no value.

I stood there in my kitchen holding that bottle, and then I thought about how many women quietly believe that very thing about themselves.

Maybe life didn't turn out the way they hoped. Perhaps a marriage is broken or breaking. Maybe someone left. Maybe someone betrayed you. All of us have made mistakes. Some of you might feel used up, overlooked, invisible. Too old, too tired, too much, or not enough. And somewhere on this journey called life, you have started to believe that your worth has expired.

God tapped my heart with this love note, and I want to send it on to you:

A woman's value and worth have no expiration date.

How do I know this to be true? Because her worth was not assigned by a person, a marriage, a job, a title, a role, a body, or a season of life. Her worth was given by God alone, and anything given by God does not expire.

Not when life gets hard. Not when a relationship breaks. Not when someone betrays you. Not when you make mistakes. Not when you get older, a little more gray and a little more wrinkled, saggy, or need support to walk down the street. Not when you feel forgotten, dismissed, or erased.

“He is the God of all grace, abounding with mercy for the merciless, help for the helpless, redemption for anyone and everyone.” Dr. David Jeremiah, Captured by Grace

So how will you show up when self-doubt rears its ugly head, and confusion sets in, and you don't know what to do or who to be?

I keep coming back to Micah 6:8 these last couple of weeks:

When in doubt, do what is right, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.

That verse holds two things together that are hard to hold at once: truth and mercy. Doing what is right is truth. Loving mercy is compassion, forgiveness, and redemption.

And walking humbly means we don't control everything, we don't know everything, and we can't fix everything. We just walk with God and try to live honestly.

Redemption is a beautiful word, but sometimes we misunderstand it.

Redemption doesn't mean pretending something is healthy when it's not. It doesn't mean tolerating or dismissing what is destroying you. It doesn't mean there are no boundaries. And often, redemption doesn't mean everything goes back to the way it was before a rupture occurred.

Redemption means God is still writing the story.

One thing I am learning this year is that sometimes the story God is writing with me invites truth, boundaries, distance, repentance, change, time, growth, and maybe even some therapy, coaching, and really good friends.

My prayer for you right now, as I'm typing, is this: that in the middle of this chapter of your story, you will learn to walk in self-respect.

I want to say something I hope will be helpful, and took me a good while to truly understand:

Self-respect is not pride. Self-respect is stewardship.

My friend, God has trusted you with a life. You have a mind, a body, a heart, a soul. He has given you your time, your energy, your unique gifts, and a precious story to write with Him. As we walk through this life, we are invited to take responsibility and steward all of those things well.

Please remember: you are not responsible for controlling another adult's choices. Others may not respect you, and that can be heartbreaking. And one of the hardest parts of this journey is learning to believe that you need to be the first person who is clear about what you will no longer tolerate, what you will invite into your life, and what you need, want, and desire.

That takes time and honesty in prayer. It can even walk us into grief and loss. Exploring your tolerations will help you learn to listen to yourself again, and it may require you to define things for yourself that no one ever taught you to define before like:

• What does safety actually mean for me?
• What does sanity actually look like in my life?
• What does dignity feel like?

Once we pause and answer those questions, we can lean in a little further and ask:

• What do I believe about my worth?
• What am I afraid will happen if I tell the truth?
• What have I been carrying-for days, months, or even years that might not actually be mine to carry?

I don't have all the answers for you. And I don't think Leslie, myself, or anyone on our team or anyone else, for that matter can give you all the answers either. But I do believe this: defining safety, sanity, worth, responsibility, and truth is some of the hardest and most important work a woman will ever do.

If I were to suggest next steps in a very practical way not a big, dramatic change, just a place to start it would be this:

First, start by writing down what safety actually means to you. Not what someone else says it means but what it means to you. When do you feel safe? When do you not feel safe? What behaviors, words, or patterns make you feel small, afraid, confused, or unstable?

Second, start paying attention to what you are carrying every day emotionally, mentally, relationally, financially, socially, environmentally and ask yourself some honest questions: Is this actually mine to carry? Or have I just been carrying it for so long that I don't know how to put it down?

Third, if you want to go a little deeper, try this simple prayer. Place one hand on your heart, I have found my right hand feels aligned here) one hand on your belly (this is for your left) . Take a deep breath and say: “Show me what is true, Lord, and give me the courage to live inside the truth.” Then pause. Listen. Breathe again. And listen.

Friends, I'm still learning all of this myself. I am grateful that we get to walk this together. I don't have it all figured out, and I am thankful to be part of a safe community where I can navigate the twists and turns along this holy road called life.

I am starting to realize that honoring God, honoring redemption, and honoring the life He gave me do not have to be enemies. What if they were actually much closer together than we have been taught? What if the same were true for you my friend?

Pause here and ponder.

I believe there is more to talk about here, so I am praying about writing a Part Two on this topic. In my next blog, I want to tell you about two things I found on a trail in Colorado while preparing for my Camino, because I think those two things might be part of the answer to your question.

So stay curious, my friends. These are going to be very simple ideas, but they are not easy ones.

Here's a sneak peek: We have an opportunity to see clearly and carry what is ours and to know that we are seen clearly by the One who loves us most.

See you in Part Two.

Reflection Question: If my worth truly has no expiration date, what might I need to stop tolerating or start changing?

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