Forgive, Let Go, and Protect Your Peace

What's up, wonderful, amazing, sweet, and lovely people? How are you all doing today? I hope you're having an amazing day and that you have decided not to let anybody steal your joy!

Welcome to MaryamsJoyfulLife blog. It's a beautiful day, and today I want to talk about forgiveness.

What does it mean to forgive?

To me, forgiveness means deciding that you are no longer going to allow the pain of what someone did to control your life. It means letting go of the hurt, betrayal, lies, disappointment, or disrespect.

Forgiving someone doesn't mean what they did was okay.

It also doesn't mean you have to bring them back into your life or give them the same access they had before they hurt you.

Sometimes forgiveness is simply saying, "You hurt me, and it was painful, but I'm choosing to let this go. I'm not going to allow what happened to control my life anymore."

I've experienced this myself. There have been people who hurt me deeply, and the more I focused on what happened, the more it hurt. But when I decided to forgive and give the pain to God, I began to feel lighter.

I realized that holding on to the hurt wasn't hurting them. It was hurting me.

Forgive, But Have Boundaries

One thing I want to make clear is that forgiveness doesn't mean becoming a doormat.

You can forgive someone and still keep your distance.

You can forgive someone and decide that the relationship will never be what it once was.

You can forgive someone without giving them the same access to your life.

Trust has to be earned.

You are valuable, loved, worthy of respect, and deserving of peace. Don't allow someone else's actions to continue stealing your joy.

Forgive them.

Let go of the pain.

Learn from what happened.

Set your boundaries.

And keep moving forward.

Sometimes forgiveness isn't about giving someone another chance. Sometimes it's about giving yourself the freedom to heal.

So today, I encourage you to choose peace. Give your hurt to God and allow yourself to move forward.

Forgive, but be wise. Love, but have boundaries. And whatever you do, don't let anybody steal your joy!

Thank you so much for checking out MaryamsJoyfulLife blog today. Until next time, keep choosing joy! ❤️

— Maryam

I Stopped Before I Did Something I Would Regret

 Humility, Wisdom, and Letting Go of Pride

What’s up, wonderful, amazing, sweet, and lovely people? How are you all doing today? I hope you all are having an amazing day today, and I hope nobody steals your joy. Welcome to MaryamsjoyfulLife. It’s a beautiful day today, and I’m super excited to be here with you all. God is good!

Today, I want to talk about humility. Humility and flushing away pride.

Recently, I had a difficult experience with someone very close to me — a family member. During a conversation, there were misunderstandings, hurtful words, and disrespectful things said that I honestly never expected to hear. It hurt deeply because this was someone close to my heart.

At first, I was ready to respond publicly. I filmed a whole video about the situation. I talked about how I felt, expressed my frustration, prayed during the video, edited it, and got everything ready to post.

Have you seen my latest vlog?

But before I hit that “post” button, I paused.

I started asking myself some hard questions:

Am I proud of this video?

What am I truly trying to gain from posting this?

Will this help anyone?

Or am I simply trying to satisfy my ego?

How will this affect the people I’m talking about?

Is this coming from wisdom… or from anger?

And when I sat with those questions, I realized something important:

I didn’t need to post the video.

The truth is, I was acting out of hurt, anger, pride, and emotion. I realized that just because I have a platform doesn’t mean I should use it to react emotionally. Sometimes pride makes us feel like we need to prove a point, defend ourselves publicly, or expose people just because we can.

But wisdom tells us to pause.

Wisdom tells us to think before we speak.

Wisdom reminds us that not every battle deserves an audience.

I realized that making that video would not bring me peace. It would not heal me. It would not make my life better. It would only temporarily feed my emotions, and later I probably would have regretted it.

So I chose differently.

I decided there are some things I can handle privately and quietly. Some decisions don’t need an announcement. Some healing happens in secret. Some boundaries can simply be set without broadcasting them to the world.

Now, if there’s ever something I truly feel led to share in a mature and wise way — something that could genuinely help others — then maybe one day I will. But I refuse to speak from a place of spite, bitterness, or emotional heat.

I want to lead with wisdom.

The Bible says wisdom is profitable to direct. And that’s exactly what I want guiding my life — not pride, not anger, not ego, not revenge.

Sometimes wisdom sounds like: “Just wait.” “Don’t react yet.” “Don’t let your emotions control you.” “Don’t let pride make decisions for you.”

And honestly, sometimes wisdom says: “Let them.”

If they misunderstand you, let them.

If they think they’re winning, let them.

If they want to talk, let them.

But you?

You stay focused.

Do not waste your precious energy trying to prove yourself, get revenge, or show people you’re stronger. Use that energy to actually become stronger. Use it to grow. Use it to heal. Use it to protect your peace and your joy.

How often do we allow people — people who don’t even live with us, people who may be miles or continents away — to control our happiness and steal our peace?

We cannot keep doing that.

We have too much to be grateful for to allow emotional connections, drama, and negativity to consume us.

I’m learning to keep my focus and be more reasonable because I don’t want anybody to steal my joy — and I also don’t want to be the one who steals my own joy through emotional reactions.

So today, I want to encourage you with something I heard from Mel Robbins in her book The Let Them Theory:

“Let them.”

Let them think what they want.

Let them misunderstand you.

Let them underestimate you.

And you? You continue becoming who God called you to be.

Lead with wisdom. Choose humility over pride. Choose peace over proving a point. Choose healing over emotional reactions.

Thank you so much for stopping by today. You all are amazing, sweet, and lovely people.

And remember: Don’t let anybody steal your joy.