The (In)Courage teams are challenging us to tell our stories.
There are very few things as personal as sharing your own personal journey.
Everyone of us has a story to share.
It’s true because having a testimony is good and real and powerful.
But also knowing that you have walked steady and strong for many years is good too.
You don’t have to have a powerful story in order to share with others your life lessons and experiences.
My husband has said to me on many occasions,
“I wish I had a story, a testimony like yours.”
I have said back to him,
“I would rather have had a family like yours than a story like mine.”
It is all about perspective.
There are many parts of my story that are untold and maybe always will be, we don’t have to expose everything in order to be authentic and real.
Does it matter that we share matters of our hearts and places of healing with others?
To walk alongside someone who is in the same place where you have been is good and powerful.
When can you share from what you know and have experienced.
You both become stronger.
You strengthen each other just by the act of trusting and sharing.
When I was in a ‘group’ for women who had been through rough places growing up we had a sister hood because we understood the pain of another.
Our stories are healing not only for ourselves but for those who are listening.
Some people need to hear ‘our hope’.
Some need to hear ‘you can make it too and not stay stuck in dark places’.
I have talked to women who could barely walk putting one step in front of the other.
Fear gripped them and they could not bare to think of the future.
Hope gives us freedom and courage and the ability to say,
“I am stronger than this pain.”
When I was going through rough emotional places within my spirit
I did not have the choice to give up.
I knew I had to press in and press forward.
The saying “the only way out is through” is very true.
Kind of like exercise or any other thing we must push ahead and find courage to complete.
Our stories are not just for us.
They are given to us so we can share.
So we can inspire others who walk behind us.
So we can cheer them on and become encouragers.
Are you ready and or willing to share your story with others?
It is something for us to think about.