The Other Shoe...

"I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop." She says to me. "There's no way you can be this nice."
I hear her words and my heart jumps into my throat.
What pain, what betrayal, what trauma has she experienced that causes her to say these things?
I know only a small portion of her story, but hearing these words and knowing that she truly believes them is heartbreaking.
I've offered myself as a mentor and a friend. I listen to her story. I affirm her with words and with love. I extend grace as it's been so willingly been given to me. My words fail, but my heart is sincere. I love her simply because she is a child of God and because she is in desperate need of love, of kindness, and of grace.
She's being vulnerable and it's painful.
She's fighting so many battles and it's exhausting.
She's struggling with her self worth and comes up short every time.
These are things I see in her eyes, her demeanor, and hear in her words, her voice. Pain, exhaustion, trauma, lack of self-worth. And I know where she's coming from. Maybe not to the degree at which she's feeling it. Maybe not with 100% complete understanding of what she's been through. But I've experienced similar things and I know how darkness closes in so easily.
I pray to God to use me. "Lord, let me be a light in her dark, dark world." 
He says "Lauren, you already are."