You’ve been holding so much for so long that it barely feels optional anymore—it just feels like who you are. Letting go almost feels wrong, like something important might fall apart if you do.

But maybe what you’re carrying was never meant to stay with you this long. Maybe it’s not yours to keep.

I know you’ve been carrying so much for so long that it feels like it is part of you. I know you think if you put it all down, something will fall apart. That someone will be disappointed. That you’ll be selfish or ungrateful or wrong.

You were never meant to carry everything on your own.

– Jacqueline Whitne

But you won’t.

You were never meant to carry everything on your own. The shame from your past. The mistakes you can’t forgive yourself for. The need to have it all figured out. The pressure to be perfect. The weight of everyone’s expectations. The grief you think you should be over by now. The fear that you’re not enough. It became yours by default, not by design. And I’m giving you permission to put it down.

You don’t have to keep proving yourself. You don’t have to keep holding onto what I’ve already forgiven. You don’t have to keep punishing yourself for being human. You don’t have to keep carrying what I’ve already taken from you.

Let it go. Not because it doesn’t matter. But because it was never yours to carry in the first place. I’ve got it. You can rest now.

Jacqueline Whitney is the author Held: A 50 Day Devotional For Parents and All That You Deserve.