Hey all! You may remember my Story Time a while ago that briefly talked about my testimony. Well, today I thought I would share my full testimony in detail. Enjoy!
When I was around 4 or 5 years old I decided that I believed that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins then rose again on the third day. I was baptized when I was 7 when we were on furlough. I had many months of full commitment and dedication to God and his word. Then we returned to South Asia. A couple of months after our return we experienced the 2015 earthquake. (Please go check out my Story Time 2 for more detail). I was in a really tall building the second time it hit. That caused really bad anxiety and depression. A lady from the US came to give therapy to the kids who had been affected spiritually by the earthquake. I and a lot of other traumatized kids started to go through counseling. I decided not to let what the woman said affect me. And I stayed depressed. Then one day she shared a verse that got to me. “Do not be afraid for I am with you”. This helped when I allowed it to. I still refused to enter any buildings taller than 4 stories. Though sometimes I had too, I would say that verse. Kinda pathetic, huh?
Yeah, well, then I found out that we were going to visit the country that the earthquake took place. That was not the best news to hear, but I mean I made it. When we were halfway through our six months of staying in that country, I had made a few friends at the school I was going to, though I was bullied by a couple of girls that were not too crazy about me being there. One day I came home from school to find out that we weren’t returning back home. As you can imagine, that really hit me hard. I was still going through intense anxiety and now I was struggling with my looks. I was not only being bullied about how scared I was all the time I was also bullied on my looks. That increased my level of depression as well. By the age of 8, I was pretty messed up. I tried not to show it at school, but there’s only a limited amount of times you can fake sick. When it got to like 3 times a week, my friends got kinda worried. It got to the point where I was always acting happy, but inside I was MESSED UP!
Then I went into fourth grade and by the end of the year, I had changed A LOT! The organization that my parents are with had a meeting and I had the best VBS leaders ever! They taught me a lot and by the end of the meeting, I was almost fear-free. Let me tell you, that hotel we were staying in was at least 70 stories tall. Don’t get me wrong, I still get scared and I still had slight anxiety after VBS. Things like that take time and let me tell you it took TIME. I started to focus more on God again and I felt new.
That period of time was the time in my life where I was searching for answers. Answers that were unfair to God, things like “ If you're a good god how could you let me suffer like this?” and “Why did you send me here?”. But, those questions were answered, not immediately, but they were answered. I made the best friends I’ve ever had at that school, friends like Avery, Caleb, and Jason. I also stopped allowing the mean words to get to me. And I have no regrets. Because who I was then has affected who I am now so much it’s not even funny.
YES, the mean comments still hurt, but I didn’t allow them to affect the way I lived. Don’t ever let someone’s awful words ever change who you are. If they don’t like the way you look or your personality then they have issues. They have no authority to change you. If they don’t like you then that’s their problem, NOT YOURS!!! And if you feel the need to be their friend, THINK AGAIN! If you don’t like the way they treat you or talk about you then they probably don’t treat their friends any differently. So do you really want to be their friend?
I don’t believe my testimony is even close to being completed, but for now, my testimony is perfect. In fact, all testimonies are beautiful and important. DON'T EVER FORGET THAT!
I hope y’all enjoyed reading my speech, *cough* I mean, my testimony today! See you next time, bye!
-Heather🏹