SOUL WEALTH CHRONICLES — SOUL REFLECTION
Keep the Faith: The greatest inheritance my parents gave me wasn't something I could hold in my hands.
Some families pass down jewelry.
Some pass down recipes.
Some pass down family businesses.
Mine passed down three words.
Keep the Faith.
Those words have followed me for most of my life.
They weren’t just something my mother used to say. They became the foundation I unknowingly built my life upon.
Today, I finally understand why.
Keep the Faith
There are three words that have followed me for most of my life.
Keep the Faith.
My mother said them often.
Not casually.
Not because life was always easy.
She said them because she understood something that I would spend decades learning for myself.
After she passed away, my father wrote those same four words in his own handwriting and mailed them to me.
I still have that piece of paper framed.
It sits beside a photograph of my parents.
Every morning, before I begin my day, I recite the Daily Word my mother mailed to me years before she passed. I kiss their photograph, read Hebrews 11:1 from memory, and quietly whisper those three words once again.
Keep the Faith.
Those words became my inheritance.
Not jewelry.
Not money.
Faith.
For years, I thought faith meant believing that everything would eventually work out.
Now I understand it differently.
Faith wasn’t pretending life wouldn’t hurt.
Faith was believing that pain wasn’t the end of the story.
When I look back over the last decade of my life, I see a woman who kept taking one more step even when she couldn’t see where the path was leading.
In 2017, I asked for a divorce.
I got my first tattoo.
I sold the house we had built.
I moved into a place of my own.
I left a toxic job.
I began rebuilding a life I wasn’t even sure I wanted anymore.
Not because I wasn’t grateful...
Because I was exhausted.
Then came years I never could have predicted.
Financial hardship.
Career changes.
Cross-country moves.
Grief.
Loss.
Moments when I questioned almost everything.
Yet every single time I thought I had reached the end...
there was always a way.
Sometimes it was something I had forgotten I already had.
Sometimes it was an unexpected opportunity.
Sometimes it was a new job.
Sometimes it was a friend.
Sometimes it was family.
Sometimes it was a stranger.
My realtor once gave up part of his own commission so I could close on the sale of my home.
He didn’t have to do that.
Looking back, I realize my life wasn’t held together by one miracle.
It was held together by hundreds of quiet acts of generosity.
People who became angels without ever realizing it.
For years I called those moments coincidence.
Today...
I simply call them grace.
I also spent most of my life believing I had to earn my worth.
I had been overweight since I was five years old.
At my highest, I weighed 311 pounds.
My wedding dress was a size 26.
At one point, I wore a size 28.
Today, I wear a size 14.
But here’s what surprised me.
The greatest gift wasn’t the number.
It wasn’t the clothing size.
It wasn’t even the weight loss.
It was the freedom.
Crossing my legs comfortably without thinking about it.
Sitting in the middle seat on an airplane without worrying about taking up too much space.
Buckling my seatbelt without asking for an extender.
Getting on a roller coaster and hearing the safety bar click into place after years of avoiding certain rides because I was afraid of the humiliation of not fitting.
I still remember standing in line for one ride years ago, full of excitement, only to have the restraint refuse to lock.
I had to step off while everyone watched.
I cried.
Not because I missed the ride.
Because I felt ashamed.
Today, I smile every time I hear that click.
Not because I became worthy.
Because I became free.
And here’s what I finally understand.
The transformation wasn’t just physical.
Years ago, I had been close to the size I am now.
I didn’t appreciate it then.
I wasn’t confident.
I still questioned my worth.
I still looked for validation in places that could never truly give it.
Today, I know something I didn’t know back then.
Confidence doesn’t come from becoming smaller.
It comes from becoming yourself.
The biggest change wasn’t my body.
It was my relationship with myself.
Somewhere along the way...
I finally gave myself grace.
That may be the greatest miracle of all.
Because I have spent my entire life extending grace to other people.
Today, I finally extended it to the woman in the mirror.
When I look back over these past ten years, I don’t see perfection.
I see perseverance.
I don’t see someone who always knew what she was doing.
I see someone who kept walking anyway.
I don’t see someone who never struggled.
I see someone who never stopped believing there was another step waiting to be discovered.
People often ask me what carried me through.
The answer has never changed.
Three simple words.
Words my mother spoke.
Words my father preserved.
Words I still whisper every morning.
Keep the Faith.
Not because life will always go according to plan.
Not because you’ll always understand the path.
But because one day, you’ll look back and realize...
there was always a way.
You just couldn’t see it yet.
Soul Reflection
What words, values, or lessons did someone you love leave with you that still guide your life today?
Perhaps the greatest inheritance isn’t something we can hold in our hands.
Perhaps it’s something we carry in our hearts.
I’d love to hear what phrase, lesson, or value has quietly shaped your life.
Journal Prompt
What has carried you through the hardest seasons of your life? Was it a phrase, a person, a belief, or a promise you made to yourself? How has that inheritance shaped the person you’re becoming?
Affirmation
I carry the wisdom of those who came before me, and I move forward with faith, grace, and courage.
With grace,
Natalie
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