Have you ever found yourself standing in the middle of a long-awaited moment—something you dreamed of, planned for, and envisioned over and over—only to realize you weren’t ready? That’s exactly what happened to Patricia Lloyd, author of the inspirational book I Love Me, in a clear dream that would go on to change her life. It was her wedding day. The air was sweet with the scent of flowers, the music was playing, and every guest had taken their seat. But there she stood—not dressed, not prepared. When the garment bag was opened, it didn’t hold the beautiful dress she had imagined. It held rags. At first, Patricia didn’t know what to make of the dream. But as time passed, the message became clearer. It wasn’t about a forgotten dress. It was about a forgotten self. She had been so busy planning for everyone else, helping others with their lives, their moments, their dreams, that she never stopped to see if she was ready for hers. That garment bag represented her life—and those rags were everything she had pushed to the side: pain, regret, self-doubt, disappointment, and the dreams she never finished because she was too afraid or too wounded to believe they mattered.

In her quiet moments of solitude, Patricia began to realize how many people carry around a garment bag just like hers. They carry hurts, failures, and fears from one season of life to the next, never unpacking them, never dealing with them. Instead, they tuck those feelings away and hope they’ll disappear on their own. But they don’t. They wait—heavy and hidden—until one day the bag is unzipped and the weight of what’s been held inside comes spilling out. For years, Patricia tried to serve others while carrying her own emotional debris. She gave her time, her energy, her care—but inside, she was worn thin. She believed she was being helpful, but she was actually avoiding the very healing she needed. It’s easy, she discovered, to confuse busyness with purpose. It’s easy to believe that as long as you’re doing something good for someone else, you’re doing just fine. But that’s not always true. Sometimes, helping others becomes a way to distract ourselves from the fact that we haven’t helped ourselves.

The rags in her dream weren’t just symbolic of brokenness. They were a mirror showing unfinished healing, neglected gifts, and misplaced priorities. Patricia thought she was being selfless, but in truth, she was avoiding the hard work of looking inward. She had built a life around appearances and obligations, but not around preparation, purpose, or peace. Then something beautiful happened. She began to see those rags differently. They weren’t trash. They weren’t worthless. They were pieces of a quilt—a life story being stitched together by grace. Each rag represented a moment she survived, a lesson she learned, or a hurt she would one day help someone else heal from. What she once saw as failure, God was shaping into testimony. Her life wasn’t falling apart; it was being sewn together.

When Patricia finally understood the message behind the dream, she realized it was time to stop hiding and start healing. She had to learn to forgive others—but more importantly, she had to forgive herself. She had to let go of the shame of what she hadn’t done, the fear of what still needed to be faced, and the guilt she carried for every missed opportunity to obey what she knew, deep in her spirit, she was called to do. That realization didn’t come easily. It came with tears, with quiet moments in prayer, and with the painful recognition that she had delayed obedience for far too long. But the beauty of grace, as Patricia came to understand, is that it never expires. The Groom in her dream—representing Christ—was still waiting. Not with judgment, but with love. And what He wanted wasn’t perfection. He wanted preparation. He wanted a bride who knew her worth, who had faced her pain, who had stepped into her purpose. He wanted her to come just as she was, and let Him turn those rags into robes.

Learning to love herself again meant looking at those rags with new eyes. Not as reminders of failure, but as evidence of resilience. Patricia began to see herself as someone who was chosen, forgiven, and deeply loved. Not because she had done everything right, but because God never stopped working in her—even when she had stopped believing in herself. That shift in perspective changed everything. She no longer saw self-love as selfish. She saw it as sacred. And she understood that until she could love the person in the mirror, she couldn’t fully love anyone else. That truth is the heartbeat of I Love Me. Letting go of the rags, for Patricia, meant giving herself permission to heal. It meant saying yes to her purpose, even after years of delay. It meant believing that her story wasn’t over just because it didn’t begin the way she had hoped. She came to understand that she was not her mistakes. She was not the pain she had endured. She was not the opportunities she had missed or the times she didn’t show up prepared. She was still being sewn into something beautiful.