u/Known-Truck-2933

This was my first time purchasing a car and I was played like a six string.
The day after I bought it the service engine light came on I brought it to the dealership and they told me it was a small evap leak and then later said there was a torque converter code. They also mentioned something about the exhaust. My dad drove it around and ran all the transmission test and it didn’t have any flags for a transmission issue. I am bringing it to the dealerships sister store at the end of the week.
While we were buying I was able to talk the price down over 6k which is fortunate because that’s the cost of the transmission. If it comes to that. I asked time and time again the dealer assured me the transmission was fine. I am hoping it’s fine. I am sure others have been in this situation before I am just looking for advice.

The people we become are often shaped as much by the love we lacked as by the love we received. In fact, perhaps love alone is not enough. We grow up searching for anything that will acknowledge the parts of us that ache, settling for whatever offers even the illusion of fulfillment. We chase people, achievement, approval, pleasure, or success not because they can heal us, but because they momentarily quiet the parts of us infected with a terminal insecurity.

Then I realize.

The decisions I make are rarely justified by reason alone. Reason is often a disguise, a polished explanation for the deeper wound beneath it. My instinct for self-preservation does not begin with wisdom; it begins with insecurity. And insecurity, if left unchallenged, corrodes everything it touches.

The desires I have held most dear, I have hidden like secrets. Over time, they too have begun to corrode. My perspective has become distorted. My humor has become self-effacing. My generosity has often been tangled with people-pleasing. Even my kindness has sometimes been less about love than about fear.

I fear that if I disappoint people, they will leave. I fear that if I am fully known, I will not be chosen. Beneath so many of my decisions is the same quiet conviction: that I must earn the love I long for.

Perhaps that is the cruelest thing insecurity does. It convinces us that love is something to deserve rather than something to receive. So we spend our lives performing, proving, accommodating, and apologizing, hoping that if we become enough for everyone else, someone will finally become enough for us.

But no amount of achievement, approval, or affection can heal a wound that has mistaken its own worth. Until that wound is confronted, every desire becomes distorted by it, and every dream is forced to carry a burden it was never meant to bear

There’s this guy that I have been crushing on since probably September 1 time I saw him I thought he was just the most precious sweetest man. I’m 22 female. I’ve always been very awkward when it comes to dating I’ve never dated. I haven’t done anything like that. I have zero romantic experience. I started to be his friend. Making myself known to him, joining in our conversations, asking him questions setting up inside jokes. But I haven’t done anything to indicate a crush well not really we’ve sent flirty messages back-and-forth. He wants played the guitar for me which felt like a scene in the Barbie movie lol in a good way he listened to an entire album that I recommended for him and sent me a review. He is super funny. He is so incredibly kind one thing that I am so infatuated with is his heart for the Lord and for his ministry I’ve been tempted just to tell him hey I like you just wanted to let you know, but I don’t want it to mess with our friendship too much. I mean we’re not super close because that wasn’t something I wanted to begin with because I didn’t want to risk ruining that friendship. You know it’s a weird area. I’m sure you get it so I feel like I know him just enough where if we needed to have some distance, it wouldn’t be weird. I don’t know what should I do because I’m not sure if he knows I’m interested we’re both a little oblivious to some things.

My friend is operating in spiritual gifts I don’t feel they have. ( I am not the only one ) but there are some people that believe they (this person) have the prophetic giving this person thinks they have it and has hurt a lot of people because of it. It has inflated their ego and has made it almost unbearable to be around them. I try to have conversation about this with them.
I lead a ministry and they want to come and speak and lead in that for a week but there is something in me that just is uneasy. I don’t know if that’s discernment from God or my own hurt.

There are people online that are claiming that getting on a dating app is like putting yourself on clearance and I can sort of see it. It is really difficult to meet people even when you are involved in a Christian circles with people your age that are also single. I’m just not someone people tend gravitate toward. So I’ve considered trying it just to see. I have no dating experience whatsoever no romantic experience whatsoever. Of course there are people I’m interested in, but I don’t know if that’ll ever happen.

So what’s your experience with it and your thoughts on it.