Truth Telling Tuesday: When Morning Came, It Was Leah

Whisper: You may feel unchosen by people, but you have never once been unseen by God.

Good morning, beautiful soul.

Yesterday, Jacob woke up to discover that heaven was open above him. Today, he wakes up to something very different. The truth.

And today's truth is one of the most honest moments in the whole Bible.

Seven Years That Felt Like Days

After his dream at Bethel, Jacob kept walking until he reached the land of his uncle Laban. At a well, he met a shepherdess named Rachel. And something in him broke open.

"Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud." (Genesis 29:11)

The man who had been running and scheming finally found something he could not manipulate. Love. He offered to work seven years for Laban in exchange for Rachel's hand.

"So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her." (Genesis 29:20)

Then came the wedding night. The feast. The veil. The darkness.

When Morning Came

"When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, 'What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn't I? Why have you deceived me?'" (Genesis 29:25)

Why have you deceived me?

Beautiful soul, read that question in Jacob's voice. Now remember who is asking it.

Years earlier, Jacob had stood before his father Isaac, whose eyes were so weak he could no longer see. Jacob wore his brother's clothes. He covered his arms in goatskin. And when his father asked who he was, Jacob said, "I am Esau." He deceived a man who could not see clearly, in order to take the blessing meant for the older son.

Now Jacob is the one who could not see clearly in the dark. And the bride beside him is the older daughter, Leah, who the Bible says had "weak eyes."

Then Laban delivers the line that must have cut straight through him.

"It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one." (Genesis 29:26)

The younger before the older. That is exactly what Jacob had done to Esau.

The Truth That Finds Us

This is not God being cruel. This is God being honest.

"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." (Galatians 6:7)

The patterns we refuse to face have a way of finding us again. Not to destroy us, but to teach us. Jacob had to feel, from the inside, what it was like to be deceived. Sometimes the only way God can heal the deceiver is to let him taste deception.

Here is the truth for us, beautiful soul. If the same pain keeps showing up in your life, wearing a different face each time, God may not be punishing you. He may be inviting you to finally look at it.

The One Nobody Chose

But I do not want you to miss the real heart of this story. Because it is not only about Jacob.

It is about Leah.

Think about her morning. She woke up next to a husband who did not want her. Her own father had used her as a bargaining chip. Her sister was the one everyone admired. Leah was the one nobody chose.

But someone saw her.

"When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive." (Genesis 29:31)

Leah's first son, she named Reuben, saying, "Surely my husband will love me now." Her second, Simeon, because "the Lord heard that I am not loved." Her third, Levi, hoping "now at last my husband will become attached to me."

Three sons. Three names. Three prayers that all said the same thing. Please choose me.

This Time I Will Praise

And then something shifted in Leah.

"She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, 'This time I will praise the Lord.' So she named him Judah." (Genesis 29:35)

This time, she stopped waiting for a man to love her. She turned her eyes upward instead.

And beautiful soul, look at what God did with that praise. From Judah came King David. And from the line of Judah came Jesus, the one Scripture calls the Lion of the tribe of Judah. The woman nobody chose became the mother of the line of the Messiah.

There is one more truth hidden at the very end of Jacob's life. When he was dying, he asked to be buried in the family tomb, and he said, "there I buried Leah." Rachel was buried along the road. Leah rests beside Jacob forever. The unchosen one was given the place of Honor.

Your Truth Telling Tuesday Practice

1. Name the pattern. Write down one painful situation that keeps repeating in your life, and ask God what He wants to show you through it.
2. Name the place you felt unchosen. A job, a friendship, a family, a relationship. Then write beside it: "God saw me there."
3. Shift your prayer. Before today ends, say Leah's words out loud: "This time I will praise the Lord."

Note from Eugenia

Beautiful soul, I have been Jacob, and I have been Leah. I have reaped things I sowed, and I have sat in rooms where I was clearly not the one being Chosen. Both places taught me something. The truth did not come to shame me. It came to set me free. And the moment I stopped begging people to see me, I realized God had been looking at me with love the whole time.

"You are the God who sees me." (Genesis 16:13)

- Daniel Eugene 👑🕊️🌾

Frequency Feature: "Calm Down" by Rema with Selena Gomez

This Truth Telling Tuesday, our Frequency Feature is "Calm Down" by Rema with Selena Gomez.

Rema, the Nigerian Afrobeats star, first released "Calm Down" in February 2022 on his debut album, Rave & Roses. The remix with Selena Gomez arrived that August and became the highest-charting Afrobeats song in Billboard Hot 100 history. Rema has said the song came from a real moment. At a party, he saw a girl who stood out from everyone else. But she was guarded and insecure, and her friends kept him at a distance. So he gently told her, "Calm down."

Beautiful soul, that sounds a lot like today's story. Jacob saw Rachel at a well and fell in love at first sight. But Leah, the sister nobody chose, spent years anxious and striving, naming son after son in hopes that her husband would finally love her.

Then, with Judah, something in her calmed down. She stopped chasing a man's approval and said, "This time I will praise the Lord."

That is what God whispers to every anxious, overlooked heart. Calm down. You are already seen. You are already loved. You do not have to fight for a place that He has already given you.

"But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content." (Psalm 131:2)

Listen to "Calm Down" on Spotify

Weekly Editorial Rhythm

• Monday: Monday Morning Grace - a gentle start to the week with faith-centered encouragement
• Tuesday: Truth-Telling Tuesday - authentic reflections on living faith boldly
• Wednesday: The Midweek Mirror - a pause for spiritual reflection and self-compassion
• Thursday: Frequency Thursday - tuning into God's voice amid life's noise
• Friday: Follow Friday - exploring what it means to follow Jesus in everyday moments
• Saturday: Sacred Saturday - rest, reflection, and spiritual practices
• Sunday: Sacred Rest/Surprise Sunday

Remember, this is love being transmuted into art; growth takes time, and you can't rush an actual journey, beautiful souls. In due time, all the right energy falls into place. Just have faith. Hold the vision. Always.

If You Need Help

Beautiful soul, if anything in your life right now feels unsafe, or if you think you or someone you love may be caught in a situation of trafficking or exploitation, you do not have to carry it alone. Help is available right now, any time of day or night.

National Human Trafficking Hotline

• Call: 1-888-373-7888 (toll-free)
• Text: 233733
• Online: humantraffickinghotline.org
• TTY: dial 711

Every call and message is confidential, and support is available in more than 200 languages.

If you are in immediate danger, call 911.

Reaching out is not weakness. It is one of the bravest steps you can take.