Dear Little Girl…Your Limp Is Proof You’ve Been With God

Genesis 32

Dear Little Girl,

Maybe you've been apologizing for the way you walk.

Maybe you've spent years wishing you could go back to who you were before the heartbreak… before the grief… before the betrayal… before the disappointment.

You keep asking God to take away the limp.

But what if the limp isn't proof that you're broken?

What if it's proof you've been with Him?

When Jacob wrestled with God, he didn't walk away unchanged.

He walked away with a limp.

For years, I thought healing meant walking as if nothing had ever happened.

I thought one day my mom's death wouldn't catch in my throat.

That birthdays wouldn't ache.

That I wouldn't instinctively reach for the phone to tell her something wonderful.

I thought healing meant the limp would disappear.

But that's not what God has done.

Instead...

He taught me how to walk differently.

And maybe that's the greater miracle.

My grief is still real.

I still miss my mom.

I probably always will.

But the limp no longer tells me only what I've lost.

It reminds me of Who carried me through it.

I've noticed another limp too.

There was a time in my life when I needed everyone to like me.

I became a chameleon.

I would change who I was depending on who stood in front of me.

I said yes when I wanted to say no.

I laughed when something wasn't funny.

I drank because I wanted to belong.

I even made choices that weren't true to who God created me to be because I was afraid of being left out.

I was constantly chasing acceptance.

Today...

I don't do that anymore.

I don't chase.

I don't change myself to fit the room.

Not because I've become hard.

Because God has made me secure.

That doesn't mean everyone understands me.

It doesn't mean everyone agrees with me.

It doesn't even mean everyone likes me.

It simply means I know whose I am.

And that changes the way I walk.

Jacob's limp wasn't a punishment.

It was a reminder.

Every step he took whispered,

"I met God there."

Maybe your limp looks different than mine.

Maybe it's grief.

Maybe it's betrayal.

Maybe it's illness.

Maybe it's the child you're praying for.

Maybe it's the marriage you're fighting to rebuild.

Maybe it's a dream that never came true.

Whatever it is...

Don't be ashamed of the places life changed the way you walk.

Those very places may be where God met you most deeply.

Sweet girl,

Some people will only see your limp.

God sees the woman who refused to let go.

The woman He carried.

The woman He changed.

And one day, when you look back, you'll realize something beautiful.

You aren't walking like you used to.

Not because life didn't leave its mark.

But because God did.

Prayer

Father,

Thank You for meeting me in the places I never would have chosen to go.

Thank You for carrying me through grief, disappointment, and seasons that changed me forever.

When I'm tempted to hide my limp or wish it away, remind me that You are often doing Your deepest work in the places that still feel tender.

Help me stop chasing acceptance and start resting in the security of being Yours.

Teach me to walk with confidence—not because my life has been easy, but because You have been faithful.

Amen.

Journal Prompt

Where has life changed the way you walk?

What if, instead of seeing that place as evidence that you're broken, you began seeing it as evidence that God has been faithfully walking beside you all along?