Dealing with one's own history is not always easy.

We can look back with gratitude and see how much blessing we have been able to experience.

But we often also see dark sides, dark hours that shaped us without asking and now bring trouble into our lives.

Sometimes it seems as if these shadows haunt us, obscuring our vision and our joy. And even though we so desperately wish things were different, the question often remains whether and how change is possible.

Recognizing strength in the dark sides of one's own history is not always easy.

Recognizing what we have experienced, accomplished, and endured is the first step in the process of acceptance and change. Recognizing and appreciating that what we experienced was difficult, harsh, and unfair, unwanted, and hurtful helps us develop the right perspective.

This requires courage, you have to look again - even if you would prefer to look away and forget. But then words and images would become negatively anchored and permanently leave us as dark

Clouds accompany.

It is not about developing a self-righteous pride that, together with hatred and anger towards the outside world, fate or God, elevates us higher than we are.

No, it's about not thinking worse of yourself than is appropriate.

Not to base your identity on what has happened to you and to remember the words that stand above you as truth, regardless of the circumstances.

So often, we live our identity out of the dark sides of our history and mix it with what others supposedly say about us because of it. Our thoughts paralyze us and force ourselves into an image that doesn't correspond to us at all.

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and certainly not the image that God has of us.

The dark sides of our history don't define our worth or our identity. No, they can even give us strength in weakness, dignity in helplessness, and joy in suffering.

It's really about more!

You are more!

How I think about myself and position myself in relation to what I've experienced is crucial for processing. Being kind and loving to myself, full of recognition and appreciation—that's the first step for change to happen. This way, light can shine through the shadows, revealing the joy, strength, and dignity that distinguish us.