Week 3

• Reading Resource(s): Boundaries by Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend or Power and Boundaries in Life and Ministry, an essay by Rev. Emily Carson, DEM, Southeast MN Synod. By dismantling the pressure to do it all or meet society’s standards of success, these readings spark an "Inside-Out" transformation where worth is rooted in being a child of God rather than how much you produce or please others.

• Core Truth: My worth is given by God, not earned by my performance or the approval of others.

• The Inside-Out Shift: Moving from seeking external validation to claiming internal dignity.

• The Practice: Write down three things you achieved today, then cross them out. Remind yourself: "My value remains even without these achievements."

• Reflection: What "Unknown God" within yourself are you being called to honor?

• Breath Prayer: Inhale: I am enough... Exhale: ...in God.

Love after Love

By Derek Walcott

The time will come

when, with elation,

you will greet yourself arriving

at your own door, in your own mirror

and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was your self.

Give wine. Give bread, Give back your heart

to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored

for another, who knows you by heart.

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf

the photographs, the desperate notes,

peel your own image from the mirror.

Sit. Feast on your life.