VULNERABILITY: A Truth I Wrote Nine Years Ago, and Still Need Today

(Originally drafted April 16, 2016 – revised December 2025)

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – John 8:32

I found this post sitting silently in my drafts folder on WordPress, dated April 16, 2016—just a few months after I lost my mother. I realize now why I never published it. At that time, I was still too tender, too raw, too unsure how my truth would be interpreted, especially as it involved leadership and emotional vulnerability. In hindsight, I think I wasn’t ready to admit out loud what I was confronting inside.

But almost nine years later, I read these words again and realized that not only do I remember that season, but I am living the revelations of it now more fully than I ever could back then.

2016:

“It has taken me all week to express my thoughts on Blooming Lilies because I’ve needed to wrap my mind around what I’m experiencing at the moment. It’s been a hectic week…but it’s more like I’ve been attuned to how people, especially leaders, treat people and the impact that behavior has on others…”

Looking at those opening words now, I can see how much I was trying to process emotionally without actually naming the pain. I had lived through manipulative leadership, intimidation, psychological traps, and subtle emotional abuse that left me questioning my worth and my identity.

I told myself I was “observing,” when truly I was hurting.

I wrote then about my mother—my confidante during that time—who reminded me not only of my calling and pedigree, but that leadership abuse didn’t lessen who I was. She would always say:

“Never let anyone diminish you.” — Dr. Maya Angelou

Back then, she wasn’t just encouraging me—she was correcting me.
She was calling me back into myself.

Fast-forward almost a decade, and I now recognize the spiritual brilliance of her timing. She left me with wisdom on this topic right before God called her home.

Why This Post Matters Now

Much has happened since 2016—deaths, grief, unexpected losses, young people gone too soon, global chaos, and personal transformation, yet the theme of vulnerability has risen again and again, asking me not just to confront my truth but to embrace it.

Vulnerability exposes what we’ve spent years trying to hide, but it also reveals what God wants to heal.

I don’t think I could’ve published this in 2016 because I was hiding from myself.
I was trying to make it through, trying not to be misunderstood, trying to stay small enough not to be hurt again.

But truth always waits for you, and eventually, life will collide with it.

What I See Now

Being vulnerable is not simply about opening up to others—it is about opening up to God and to yourself. It requires trust—trusting God, trusting the people He places in your life, and trusting the healing process itself because not everyone can handle your vulnerability — not everyone deserves your vulnerability.

God does, though, and there are moments when God will use vulnerability to reveal:

• what has been buried
• what has been denied
• what has been suppressed
• what has been surviving instead of living

Vulnerability exposes, but it also liberates.

Life Application

Vulnerability is not only a feeling—it is a spiritual practice and a courageous personal discipline. This week, consider what it would look like to trust God with the parts of your life you have been holding tightly. Vulnerability may show up as telling the truth to yourself about something you’ve avoided, admitting you are hurting, asking for support, or simply acknowledging an emotion you’ve been pushing aside.

Here are a few practices that can help:

• Identify where you are hiding. Ask yourself gently: What am I avoiding and why?
• Invite God into those places. Tell Him honestly what scares you, angers you, or confuses you.
• Share with someone safe. Ask God to reveal a person who can listen without judgment.
• Release the need to appear strong. Strength is not the absence of vulnerability—strength is the willingness to tell the truth.
• Practice stillness. Stillness allows the heart to speak and the Holy Spirit to answer.

Each of these steps teaches the soul that vulnerability isn’t something to fear—it is something God uses to free us. When we bring our truth into the light, we make space for healing that has been waiting a long time to reach us.

What I want people to hear today

I am releasing this now because I’m no longer hiding the truth of what I lived through, what I learned, or what God healed.

This is part of honoring my mother.
This is part of honoring myself.
This is part of getting the hell out of my life.

And this time, I’m pressing “publish.”

In love and charity,

Giselle (aka) Blooming-Lillie