full circle.

           Last August I was asked by my bestie Bre (of Meet the Marshalls) to guest blog on her site. Today I was cleaning out my documents on my computer and came acrossed this post. So...I thought I would dust it off and re-post it for my wonderful singal gal friends.

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I struggled all throughout my early school days (didn’t we all?!). Like many young people, I was bullied – not to the extent where I went home and cried about it every night, but enough for it to slowly eat away at my self worth. So often, I was deceived into thinking that I wasn’t good enough. I constantly believed what others labeled me as: too fat, too tall, too ugly, the list goes on and on. The labels stuck inside my head for so long, that I began to believe them myself.

 

90's Brooke.

Flash ahead several years. For so long I thought of myself in terms of how other people saw me, so when I got to a place where negative labels ceased, I had trouble figuring out who I was. It wasn’t until I learned to discover myself through the eyes of Our Lord that I found (or started to find) who I was designed to be. Now, don’t get me wrong, I still don’t have it all together. Who am I? I’m still trying to figure that out. But I do know who’s I am, and that has made all the difference. As I dove into God’s word and learned more about our Creator, I found myself becoming more and more confident in who I was, because true self-esteem comes only through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

2013 Brooke.

“You are altogether beautiful, my darling, there is no flaw in you.”

Song of Solomon 4:7 (NIV)

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            Last year, I was honoured with the position of designing and leading a girl’s empowerment group at a local pregnancy centre. When the position was initially offered to me, I almost declined. How could I teach girls about self-worth and loving themselves, when it’s something I’ve been struggling with for the past 21 years? But I must have had a mini brain lapse, because I said yes. To say I was nervous would be an understatement. I was terrified. But, in spite of that fear, I took this project to the Lord. I wanted Him to optimize this experience, not only for the girls, but for me as well. And did He ever?! I had three lovely teens (no, you didn’t misread…..there were 3 girls in my group) that signed in to do this 10 week journey with me. We may have been small in numbers, but we were mighty in power. At first I was disappointed that God only sent 3 girls my way, but in the end, it turned into a total blessing.

The Lord made something beautiful come out of those 10 weeks. He took all of the pain and ugliness I endured as a young kid, and turned it into something empowering for those girls. This experience was probably one of the most challenging in my life, but from what I got out of it, and what I hope the girls got out of it, it was definitely well worth it. The Lord is so good, so, so good. 

God makes things come full circle, and for that, I am truly thankful.