This is a guest article written by a woman named Shannon who has been radically impacted by the power of God. I hope her words fill you with encouragement today.
Shannon writes:
I was recently asked what I would tell my 21 year old self. That question instantly took me back to one of the most painful times in my life. While all of my friends were enjoying their early adulthood freedoms I was experiencing the most challenging adult endeavors.
I stood unmarried with a one year old son. Completely heart sick from my broken relationship with his dad. Most of my friends had deserted me. I had no car and was left alone with my doubting thoughts while holding a baby boy that I was completely in love with.
I felt alone in the deepest way possible.
I don’t paint this picture in hopes of getting your sympathy. I know I created this scenario by my own hands. Its just that I desperately needed God to show up in a big way. I had always been taught that God was faithful but I had never seen it in my own life. There was a verse that I found during this time and it gave me a glimmer of hope.
If we are faithless, He is faithful-for he cannot deny himself. – 2 Timothy 2:13
These words became a tangible promise of who God claims to be.
It felt as if all of my dreams had crumbled to the floor. One by one I tried to pick them up and make a new picture but it was just too fragile for display. I had been told by people I looked up to in the church that my ministry was over. I was told that God had big plans for me and that I had ruined them. At my church, the Christian greeting cards that I had modeled for were taken off the chapel store shelves. I was the woman at the well, a statistic, and now I didn’t even have a family to give this precious baby. The Lord brought me to a verse that showed me more about who He was and what he thought of me.
I know the plans I have for you, declares The Lord, plans of welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all of your heart. – Jeremiah 29:11-14
My life was nothing like I had envisioned it. I didn’t know how God was going to make it beautiful. All I could do was cry out to him, and I did just that every single day. I surrendered all of my pain, every single dream, and the desire for love to Him over and over again.
I would tell 21 year old self that everything was going to be ok. That God was in control the entire time, carefully orchestrating every part of my life. He held me when no one else would. I would tell myself, Yes, God is everything He says He is. Almost 15 years later and I have the privilege of being married to one of the kindest, strongest, and hard working men I have ever known. I remind myself as I am awoken to a chubby little round face in the darkness of the night, and His grace is all around me as I mother 4 beautiful children every day.
God has blessed me with a lovely life and I now know He IS faithful. He IS exactly who he says he is. He is my defender, my protector, my redeemer. He makes beauty from ashes, and He turned my mourning into dancing. The life He has given me exceeds my dreams as a 21 year old woman, and I stand amazed at my faithful creator.
– Shannon thecrazychabothouse.blogspot.com
Bio: I have been loving Jesus since I was a toddler, and through all my failures He has still loves me and has shown me grace! I am a wife and mother to 4 kids and I am passionately in love with all of them! I love love to write and God has given me a huge heart for single moms as I was one for 7.5 years. Live life everyday and don’t just Exist!
