Dear Little Girl, The Chair Was Never Empty
Three years ago, I sat on a stage with a simple chair beside me.
Just one empty chair.
The Chair Was Never Empty
That was the visual.
One chair for me.
One chair for God.
That's it.
Show up.
Sit down.
Talk to the One who never leaves.
What I didn't tell everyone that night was that I was living through one of the hardest seasons of my life.
Trey and I were separated.
Our marriage was ending.
And as I stood on that stage, I cried because I didn't want it to.
Speaking Through Tears….Held By Grace
My marriage felt like it was slipping through my fingers, and I honestly didn't know how the story would end.
I had originally planned to speak about my Good Life Journal—how it was born out of grief after losing my mom.
Instead...
I threw my notes away.
I spoke from my heart.
Months later, someone saw a picture from that night.
They quietly said,
"That picture always broke my heart.
It looked like someone was missing."
For a long time...
I thought they were right.
I thought that chair represented the person who wasn't there.
The husband I missed.
The future I couldn't see.
The life I thought I had lost.
But today...
I see that picture completely differently.
The chair was never empty.
Because God never left.
Even when Trey walked away...
God stayed.
Even when I cried more tears than I thought one person could cry...
God stayed.
Even when I questioned everything I believed about marriage, trust, and the future...
God stayed.
Day after day...one chair at a time.
Long before my marriage was restored...
My heart began to heal.
That was the first miracle.
Somewhere in those daily conversations, something inside me slowly changed.
I stopped trying to control every outcome.
I stopped believing my safety depended on another human being.
I stopped waiting for my circumstances to change before I allowed myself to breathe.
I discovered that I was never sitting in that second chair alone.
God had been there the entire time.
By His grace, Trey and I found our way back to one another.
Our marriage has been restored in ways I once thought were impossible.
Grace Wrote A Different Ending
But if I'm honest...
The greatest miracle wasn't that Trey came home.
The greatest miracle was discovering that even if he hadn't...God had never left.
Everything else grew from there.
So if you're sitting in a season that feels painfully quiet...
If someone you love is distant...
If you're waiting for healing...
If you're wondering whether hope is foolish...
Pull up a chair.
Not because every story ends the way mine did.
But because every story can be met by the same faithful God.
You don't have to have the right words.
You don't have to know how the story ends.
You don't have to fix a thing.
Just show up.
Sit down.
Be still.
Because healing doesn't begin when life gets easier.
It begins when you discover...
The chair beside you was never empty.
The One you've been longing for...
has been sitting there all along.
Love,
The girl who discovered God's presence was enough before His answers ever came.
💭 A Question to Journal On
Have you ever felt like you were waiting for someone—or something—to return before you could finally breathe?
What if the presence you've needed most has been with you all along?
🙏 A Prayer
Dear God,
Thank You for never walking away.
Thank You for staying when everything else felt uncertain.
Thank You for meeting me in the silence, in the waiting, and in the questions I didn't know how to ask.
Teach me to trust that Your presence is enough for today.
Help me believe that even when life feels unfinished, You are still writing a beautiful story.
And remind me, again and again, that the chair beside me has never been empty.
Amen.
With hope and healing,
Amy
