Today I spoke at a MOPS group to some local women. They were nothing but warm and welcoming. That’s the Southern way , right? They provided me with everything I needed to feel comfortable while speaking. Including a FAN. Yes, a personal fan that blew my hair in the wind, very movie star like as I told my testimony. I still was a sweaty mess, but never the less… Jesus came. Sweat and all.
I opened up in prayer. I invited his presence to come like a blanket, and it did. My nerves calmed as I called Him Papa, and I began.
As I shared my testimony, tremendous peace surrounded me. I felt like I had been speaking for 10 minutes, but as I checked the time on my phone I noticed it had been 50 minutes. 50 minutes of giving Him glory for my life. No wonder it seemed so peaceful and easy. It wasn’t me that was speaking, it was Him through me.
I spoke a lot on the subject of anxiety and panic attacks. I shared my struggles and victories, as I saw women I had never met before nodding their heads. I told them that I did not ” have ” anxiety, but rather I was fighting it off. I spoke some on the power of our words, and how in any situation we could tap into his peace in the midst of our chaos. Several women came up to me afterward, and told me they could relate on one level or another in my testimony. I LOVED hugging them and loving on them. I loved that they had the courage to admit their struggles.
There is such beauty in admitting our struggles, for when we do they become VICTORIES.
Tonight while preparing dinner, Rhema came up to me wide eyed. Her exact words were this:
” Momma! I feel so silly! The Holy Spirit is lifting me HIGH in the sky. Like to heaven and I’m so high in the sky right now.”
I bent down to her level and asked her to explain more of what she was feeling. She told me that was all she wanted to say, but continued to smile and laugh. Her blue eyes beamed with his love , his love that was contagious and began filling the kitchen with laughter.
This was the same daughter that minutes later, excuses herself to use the restroom. It wasn’t long before I heard her loudly proclaim:
” HOLY MOSES! MOM! YOU HAVE TO COME SEE HOW BIG MY POOP IS!”
That’s a kid for ya. Getting all spiritual one second, and the next she is a total redneck.
But as I thought back to her statement minutes before I saw that…
In that very moment she was feeling a release of what her momma had shared that morning. No pun intended on the “release” part. At that very point in time I had received several messages from women, at that same meeting … reaching out to me about their struggles with anxiety. My heart soared, not because I wished anxiety upon them. But simply because I had become relate-able.
No one wants to listen to a woman who has it all together. Who has the perfect story. Thats why there is such beauty in our honesty about our struggles in this life. Not to dwell on them, and only speak of the hardships in our lives. But to point the victory of our unsung battles to Our King of glory, who fights every battle along side us. He never relents. He’s completely relentless to win our hearts.
