Hold fast.

Hold fast. To what you know is true. And if you can't be sure of knowing it then go for it anyway. For those moments when you feel like you've been jilted or let down or something isn't right - look for what is. Know that there is so much right in the world falling for the wrong is you letting yourself down, but worse, letting down the people who care so much about you.

Hold fast. Not just to what you believe in but what you believe yourself to be, in the future. Knowing that every night has a morning and the darkest is before the dawn. Understand that to understand beauty and freedom we must understand pain and the cold hard brutality of life. The moments when your entire being is forced to cry out and you wonder why it's worth it. Hold fast. Hold so fast you have got nothing left and your nails are near digging into your hand because the only thing you know for real, at that moment, is the breath you have and the tears down your face.

Hold fast and know that it gets better. It honestly gets better. HOLD FAST. Don't expect it to get better in a day, a week or a year. But give yourself the grace to look back in a decade and acknowledge that things suck but that things got better. Just hold, hold on so fast that there is nothing else for you to but be hopeful. Nothing else than to just know that one day you'll be so far over it you can tell jokes about it to people you don't even know.

Hold fast. Hold and know your worth, and if you struggle to understand the meaning of it understand that you exist and for you to be made worth had to have been there. So much worth that life and love came out of you and now it's time for you to use it. Don't lose it. Don't stop it. Just hold on and know that it's a journey, it's a bumpy road but you'll get to a mountain top and the view will be magnificent and you'll see the valley and smile, laugh at how tiny it looks and acknowledge that yes the road was hard but you're here now. Who can take that away from you?

One day, when you're running the race of life, and you're heading straight for the glorious end that is really the beginning, you'll see those running with you and you'll know that they held fast too. They clung on to the worth that they knew existed and have chosen to pull through and go for it. Go for it so hard there was nothing else to do but run. Run for the hills so they can shout songs of triumph from the top of them. Run for the valleys so they can help those within them. And you'll be running too. Holding fast and running and knowing nothing can stop you because you're holding. You're holding fast.

"No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you." Joshua 1:5