I am Me --- I am Strong (but sometimes I'm not)
It seems that recently I have had quite a few people tell me how strong they feel I am, and I never quite know how to respond. In the silence that follows the statement, I'm thinking of all of the reasons - all of the circumstances - all of the life experiences I have gone through to make me that way. Famous last words (from around the time God called me into ministry [in the year 2000], while sitting on my bathroom floor in England - because that is the only "quiet" a mother of 2 small boys gets): "Wouldn't it be great if I could learn from the life experiences of others, instead of having to walk any of the hard stuff out myself?" Ha! I feel like I might as well have said, "Lord, open up the floodgates of adversity and dump them on my head!" At the ripe age of 28 I had no idea what was about to come, the journey I was embarking on or the challenges that lay ahead. Yes, somedays I am strong. I can feel the hard won strength coursing th