Healing from people-pleasing and learning to trust God without losing myself.
When I first reinvented myself in the hospital and began the work of unlearning my people-pleasing nature, I put my faith on a shelf.
I didn’t know if it had ever truly belonged to me, or if it had simply been one more thing I picked up to keep others comfortable.
A few months later, though, I found myself buying a new Bible, a journal, some fancy pens, and fresh highlighters. I was excited to return to God’s Word. Somewhere along the way, through my own quiet longing for His presence again, I realized something important:
My faith had always been mine.
But a new question surfaced.
How does a recovering people-pleaser safely submit to God without losing herself all over again?
The answer, it turns out, was simpler than I expected.
First, I sought God directly, not humanity’s fractured versions of Him, split apart by conflicting doctrines, rules, and regulations. I went straight to Scripture and into prayer.
Then I began my first real study: identity.
Who does God say that I am?
What does He ask of me?
And what does that mean for my healing?
You know what I found?
God is the One who designed me in the first place.
Yes, I know. That’s well known.
But sit with it for a moment.
What does that actually mean?
It means God knows me — not a version of me shaped to be more acceptable or more pleasing, like any earthly person might expect of me. Just me. He knows Del all the way down to her core, and His guidance will only ever bring out the best parts of who she already is.
My identity is safe with Him, because it will never be moulded into something that doesn’t belong to me.
All I really have to do is trust Him.
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