Do you ever feel under so much pressure to be prettier, cleverer or holier that you feel you just might break? Do you ever feel like you're not good enough for other people, and they will never love or accept you? Do you feel like you're the one who has to change, to solve the problems and get it all right?
I definitely feel like that sometimes.
In this book I have taken six issues, each of which come with its own pressures: school, image, friends, family, church and our personal relationships with God. In each case we may feel that our teachers, family, friends or even God expects us to be better than we feel inside. We may feel that if we don't meet these expectations we need to work harder in order to be loved and accepted.
But this is not true!
My prayer for you - and me - is that we realise we have had enough of trying to be 'good enough'. We need to let God strengthen us to keep walking. We need to listen to his gentle voice - and be encouraged to lift our eyes to him and dwell in his amazing grace.
Hannah Fytche is in her first year of studying theology at university. Over the past four years she has been mentored by Sharon Prior of the Sophia Network, which 'exists to empower and equip women in leadership, and to champion the full equality of women and men in the church.'
