This weekend was my churches annual (3 years so far) women's retreat.
For the first time, I was asked to speak. More specifically, I was asked to give a testimony about a particularly difficult time in my life when I was about 15.
I was so nervous about this testimony for a number of reasons; not the least of which being the fact that although I have 30 years of stage performance under my belt and have been involved in leading bible studies and such for over a decade, I have never publicly shared a testimony of my own personal life before.
I shared some of my "ugly" with these women and I was very concerned about how they would react to it.
Well, the reaction was SO MUCH MORE than I had even thought to hope for! Not only did God allow me to reach these ladies with what I had to say, but I was truly blessed by them! They (pretty much every one of them) all came to me one at a time and shred with me some way that my story had reached them. What a joy!!!! Two sisters who are both grandmas of teens (though they hardly look old enough) shared with me that they are determined to start a praying grandmas ministry- gather other grandmas of teens together to pray for kids regularly- and that my testimony fueled the fire for them to get going with it!
I won't go into the whole testimony here and now but I will touch on the basic point that I made because it is something that I am passionate about.
Remember that not everyone will share their pain. They are scared, embarrassed, or ashamed, perhaps. Or it may be that they have no one they feel they can share it with. In my case, I wasn't ready or willing to share my pain. Still it is there, and someone needs to pray for it. Ask God to show you who is hurting around you and how to pray for them and he will! We don't have to know the details of some one's pain in order to pray for them. In fact sometimes we are too concerned with the details and that becomes more like gossiping than helping.
It only takes a few extra seconds when you pray to say, "God, show me who I can pray for today".
Then when you see them, just say something nice, like, "Hey I thought of you today and it made me smile." I think we'd all agree that sometimes a nice comment like that can change our whole attitude!
>
About Me
- Mel
- "I'm nothing special. In fact, I'm a bit of a bore. When i tell a joke, you've probably heard it before." "But I have a talent, a wonderful thing, cause everyone listens when I start to sing." "I'm so grateful and proud, All I want is to sing it out loud!" "So I say, 'Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing. Thanks for all the joy they're bringing!"
2 comments:
I'm proud of you, Mel. Thank you for responding to their request to share... and for blessing many by doing so. I believe that God will use your sincerity to reach many who need to understand that many are battling hidden pain and to pray for them... or ask to be prayed for. I wish I could have been there to witness this myself!
You are so awesome to share. Just like we were talking about last time you visited, right?
Oh, btw, I did try to look up the Behr color that you recommended and then there was a problem with the website, so I couldn't put it on my photo. But I'm going to try again because it looks like a really nice shade. :)
Post a Comment