It begins here

June 1, 2023

Today, I am taking a big step and towards something I've wanted to do for a long time, but I kept coming up with different reasons why this new adventure of writing would not work. Fear of being vulnerable was at the root of it all.

My husband has been encouraging me to write for years (Y E A R S). I’m not sure how you are with trying new things or taking a risk, but I have been throwing an internal temper tantrum about the whole idea. What finally changed my mind about taking the plunge and going all in was a very recent event. There was a request for personal testimonies, which I thought were going to be anonymous, that were going to be shared with the goal of encouraging people to trust God to come through for them. I knew immediately I had to share a story about my life that I held very close; only a very few select people knew what I was going through during that season of my life.

Long story short, I was asked if the story could be recorded and shown to what could be thousands of people. Immediately I was trying to back pedal, thinking what I had initially felt was a huge mistake. A sweet friend of mine who already knew my story said, “you can’t control what people do with the information that is shared… you just have to trust that the people who need to hear it, hear it.” That changed my perspective immediately. From there, I knew it was not my story. It was a story about what God had done in my life-it was His story.

Well, I recorded the video and that led to quite a few conversations with my family that I had previously wanted to avoid until kingdom come. However, once the conversations started, my whole attitude towards the situation changed. My family was much more gracious than what I had rehearsed so many times in my head. Each conversation I had, I felt more and more encouraged and free.

Do not get me wrong, in the midst of it all, I knew God was working and moving crazy mountains, but the stronghold for me was my fear of being vulnerable. I did not want people to know and see one of my biggest struggles. In that, I saw that what I was trying to cover (my deepest struggles of hopelessness and disappointments) God wanted to uncover because others needed encouragement. Others needed to see what He has done and what He can do. When we hide these things in fear of what others may think of us, other people will not get their hopes or faith built up.

So here I am, ready to share the highest of moments, the lowest of moments, and the moments in-between, because those can be beautiful moments of growth, too. Soon, I will share the testimony I was writing about earlier. In the meantime, I hope you find meaningful moments as the stories are shared.

Sincerely,

Mea