October 6th, 2026
There is so much in the Bible that I am learning, but one of the biggest things I’m realizing is that I’ve spent so much of my life reading or hearing Scripture without actually applying it to my real life. And what has that gotten me? A whole lot of heartache.
We always hear that the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I’ve heard that verse so many times. But why didn’t I ever stop and use those words to examine the people, opportunities, and situations I was allowing into my life? Why didn’t I look at the two men I married, friends, family and ask myself:
What is this relationship producing in my life? Is it stealing from me? Is it killing parts of me? Is it destroying me?
If I had applied just that one biblical truth to my life, I could have saved myself so much sadness, sorrow, pain, and hurt.
I could have asked myself: Does this person kill my joy? Do they kill my happiness? Do they kill my spirit? Do they steal my money or my belongings? Do they steal my peace? Do they steal pieces of my faith? Do they take the love I freely give and leave me feeling empty? Do they destroy my self-worth until I barely recognize the person I have become? Do their actions actually show me love, or is love only something they say with lying words? Do they make me bitter, angry, or depressed? Do I find myself constantly questioning whether love is even present at all?
And another question I’m learning to ask is: When they hurt me and I react to that hurt, do they take responsibility for what they did, or do they make my reaction the entire problem?
Because there comes a point where I have to stop accepting blame for simply having an emotional response to being hurt. I can take responsibility for how I respond without taking responsibility for someone else’s hurtful behavior. Someone cannot continually hurt me, watch me finally break down, cry, become angry, or react out of pain, and then point at my reaction as proof that I am the problem while completely ignoring what caused it. Their actions are still theirs to own, just as my actions are mine to own.
Those are such simple questions, but I never asked them.
And I’m learning now that growing in my faith isn’t just about knowing what the Bible says. It’s about actually applying it. It’s looking at every area of my life and asking whether what I am allowing close to me is producing something good or slowly destroying something God is trying to build in me.
That is what I’m learning this week. I need to ask those questions about every part of my life and every person I allow into it. And when the answer shows me that someone continually brings destruction, pain, chaos, or loss into my life, I have to be willing to walk away.
Because sometimes I think we confuse loving someone with giving them unlimited access to us. They are not the same thing.
I can love someone and still leave them behind. I can pray for someone and still walk away. I can forgive someone and still recognize that their presence in my life is hurting me. Loving someone does not mean I have to continually sacrifice my peace, my joy, my faith, my finances, my self-worth, or pieces of myself just to keep them in my life.
Even Jesus walked away from people. He withdrew. He moved on. He did not force everyone to understand Him, receive Him, or change.
And I think that is something I desperately needed to learn.
Sometimes walking away isn’t a lack of love. Sometimes it is finally recognizing what something has been producing in your life and deciding you are no longer willing to let it steal, kill, and destroy.
So tonight, I pray.
God, I pray that You remove the people from my life who steal, kill, or destroy anything within me or any part of my life. Allow them no access to me or my children, and give me the strength to walk away in peace. God, help me forgive the people who have hurt me, even the ones who continue to hurt me. Free my heart from the pain they have caused and allow me to thrive. Give back what the enemy has stolen from me over the years. Restore the joy that was taken from me. Send love, financial independence, happiness, peace, and purpose into my life. Teach me how to truly love myself, and help me finally see myself the way You see me.
In Jesus name, Amen.
Love always,
Kelsey
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