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