"I'm high maintenance. My standards, my needs, my expectations are unreasonable and make me difficult to be around or love."
How it sounds in your head: You've heard it directly: 'You're so high maintenance.' You've been made to feel guilty for wanting what you want, needing what you need, expecting what you expect. You've started lowering your standards and settling for less because asking for what you actually want seems to make you unlovable. You wonder if you're just too demanding.
"He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love."
-- Song of Solomon 2:4Enemy lie combined with people who resent anything that requires effort and a culture that shames women for having standards or needs.
You've been called high maintenance. You've had people complain about what you need or want. You've watched relationships end because you wouldn't lower your standards. The accusation has been spoken over you enough times that it feels like established truth.
Esther received twelve months of beauty treatments—six months of oil of myrrh and six months of perfumes—before she even met the king. Extensive preparation, high standards, royal treatment. She didn't apologize for the year of 'high maintenance' preparation. She stepped into it fully and became queen, saving her entire people.
I REFUSE the lie that I'm high maintenance or that my needs and standards are unreasonable. IT IS WRITTEN in Song of Solomon 2:4 that He brings me to the BANQUETING HOUSE—God's standard for me is the FEAST, not scraps. My Father prepares tables of abundance for me. IT IS WRITTEN in Psalm 23:5 that He anoints my head with oil and my cup overflows. I am Abraham's seed, BARAK-blessed, and that blessing means I am the head and not the tail, above only and not beneath. Requiring kingdom-level treatment isn't demanding; it's alignment with my Father's intention for me.
Your Father doesn't see you as high maintenance—He sees you as the daughter worth the banquet, the expensive oil, the overflowing cup. He's not waiting for you to need less; He's preparing MORE because lavishing you with abundance is His delight, not His duty.