A Prayer for Feeling Forgotten

Father, I watched the group make plans without me again, and I felt that old, sinking certainty that I am the friend people forget to include. No one was cruel. I was simply not thought of.

I confess I have started shrinking myself to need less, telling myself it does not matter, when the truth is it matters very much, and the not-mattering is exactly the wound.

So I come to the One who has never once overlooked me. People may forget, but You engraved me on the palms of Your hands. I am not an afterthought in heaven even when I feel like one on earth.

Heal the part of me bracing to be left out. Quiet the inner voice keeping score of every time I was passed over. Let me feel chosen by You so deeply that being overlooked by others loses its power to define me.

I hand You the loneliness of feeling unseen. You see me right now, fully, with nothing hidden and nothing forgotten. And being remembered by God is enough to make me stand a little taller. Amen.