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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Inner Strength (04/20/06)
What is Inner Strength?

Inner Strength – how do we obtain it?

I had struggled with low self-esteem for most of my life. Everyone else seemed more equipped, more balanced in their life’s pursuit. My experience to that point had been one of abuse. Some teachers and family members used words to tear down rather than build up. My childhood years were spent walking around in shame as a result of this verbal abuse. When I graduated school, I wanted to be an artist. I studied the craft and had the talent, but didn’t believe in myself or my ability and that belief reflected in the way I presented my work to a potential employer.

I’d been taught that inner strength came through career and marriage. I observed friends and family members in successful careers and what appeared to be good marriages while I remained hopelessly alone and unfulfilled.

They were balanced, they possessed inner strength – I was a failure. The years passed and I found Jesus or I should say He found me. He lifted me up from a life of rejection and healed the wound of abuse. I learned to measure worth by the love that Christ poured out on me and through His love, inner strength of character began to bloom in my soul. I started seeing these people that I held in such high esteem as equals who needed God’s love as much as I did.

Then a few weeks ago I received an email from a friend, who also grew up in abusive circumstances, she told me her cousin had committed suicide leaving a husband and two small children. My friend went on to say that she always envied this cousin because she had a good relationship with her parents and seemed happy and filled with joy. My friend relayed that she prayed for her cousin and also for the confusion she was experiencing in her soul. Then she told me God impressed upon her the fact that everything that happened to her made her strong and capable to face life’s challenges.

Perhaps the lesson here is ‘all that glitters is not gold’ and true inner strength is tested in the fire of affliction.

The same night I received my friend’s email I got down on my knees and thanked God for my hard life knowing that those afflictions had built in me an inner strength I could not otherwise obtain.
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Member Comments
Member
Date
Birdie Courtright
04/30/06
All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His name. I'm thankful that you can share your testimony in a way that brings glory to God, despite the things you've been through. God bless you!
Carol Shaffron
05/02/06
How many of us have come out of abusive circumstances? And how much more compassion are we able to express because we know! That is when the love of Christ penetrates and saturates and heals our wounded hearts and integrates our soul with our spirit in the Holy Spirit.

Blessings,
Carol
Jan Ackerson
05/03/06
It's great to read how God has worked in your life!

Your 4th paragraph is a bit confusing, because you use the pronoun "she" to refer to both your friend and her cousin. I was unclear on who received inner strength on my first reading.

I'd love to see some of your art some time!