“Just when I thought all hope was lost and everyone had turned their backs on me, I found it in myself to move forward.”
At work, in the checkout line at the store, or networking I meet people every day that inspire me. For some reason as quiet as I am people will come up to me in conversation and start spilling their life stories, I don’t mind it though because it confirms my purpose and it shows me that everyone has a story even a young child.
I have listened to testimonies of cancer survivors or battling, people who have lost loved ones, those who are taking care of family members who are ill, being involved in abusive relationships, being tossed around in the foster care system, sexual abuse victims, those who have been incarcerated, and those who have lost their income/home and family, this list can go and on. One thing I notice as a commonality in their stories is they didn’t know their own strength, although they acknowledged God in their survival, but they also possessed inner strength that allowed them to move forward. What is it that we pray when we are going through hard times or to prevent from strangling the life out of the kids…“Lord give me the strength” Yes, strength to endure life’s challenges and to cope with what is soon to come, without strength you are weak left with no defenses which means when attacked you can’t stand.
I had the privilege to listen to a 14 year old girl share her story of her life challenges. She lived with her mother who was on drugs and this young lady of course was constantly criticized. This young girl needed family and turned to the wrong kind, she joined a gang, at the age of 10 this baby girl was a gang banger. Even at such a young age this girl knew that there was more to life than sex, drugs, and violence at the age of 12 she was jumped out of the gang, doctors didn’t know if she would make it because she was so badly beaten. When she recovered she relocated with her grandmother, life was still troubled, but she was determined to be a better person and help her peers who were going through her similar trials she stated that she had to find the strength from within to change to be the person she knows she can be.
I met a woman with three children who had been abused by her husband for several years. Her family and friends tried to help her and convince her to leave, but it was excuse after excuse, she had left him at one point, but he found her and promised it would be better he apologized, and brought her flowers, she believed him and when back home. It wasn’t until in one of his rages one her children was badly injured and this was actually the final straw. Though she hated that one of her children had to get hurt to leave she realized that she could continue to put her children or herself in such danger. She never thought that she would have it in her to finally leave but she found the strength.
You may have may have found the strength to go back to school after dropping out or after having a child and people said you would never amount to anything. You may have started your own business or may be thinking about starting your own business. You may be starting over after a nasty divorce, or you may be working to rebuild a once broken marriage, you may be fighting opposition left and right, but the bottom line is you found your strength. We all have different stories, but one thing we all have said is “I didn’t know my own strength”.
If you’re reading this and think your situation is too far gone, think again. When can’t depend or call on anyone know there are two people that will always have your back and that God and should be yourself. Don’t give up on God or yourself remember this scripture in fact write it down and say it to yourself just when you think it’s over:
“When I fall, I will arise, when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me”
Miach 7:8 (NIV)
“Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look there.”
~Marcus Antoninus
Blessings!
~Lady B
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