You Quietly Let Me Be Myself

I love how you quietly
allow me to be myself.
You don’t try to correct me
for every little thing.

Your smile and listening ears
are the miracle grow
to the tender growth
that is already occurring.

I love how you know
that I will be OK.
You’ve been down
the same road of life
and even though it hasn’t been
exactly the same obstacles
and bumps and bruises,
you are there to cheer me on
as though those same obstacles
had been yours too.

I love your championing
of my human progress forward
and I feel
through it all
that the love in your actions
has opened the lid
to the sweetness of freedom.
I can believe God is good.
I can know that He cares for me.
Because I have seen
and felt it
through you.

This is the difference between
those who use their harshness
and lack of love to try
and shame me into changing.
It never will.
It never will.

Turn your back.
Laugh when I fail.
Talk about me behind my back
and try to shame me
with your words.
You have nothing to give
to help anyone forward.

But I have risen in love
and been lifted above
all the shame and hurt and pain.
I’m being made new.
Alive and free.
And I will run forward
and skip among the flowers
in the wide-open meadow.
Watch if you will.

Your continued and committed love
melts all the hardness this life
tries to impose on me.
You quietly let me be myself.
God changes me in your love
and I’m forever grateful.