In the next few hours, I will prayerfully celebrate what Bishop T.D. Jakes describes as my “Earth Day.” Because God knew me before the foundation of the world (See Ephesians 1:4 and 1 Peter 1:20), May 26 is the day I was released into this earth. As I grow older yet wiser, I am constantly considering what I am doing with my dash. You know, the punctuation mark representing your life on a grave marker, between your date of birth and your date of death.
I could spend time listing all of the things I have not accomplished to date; however, I choose to count my many blessings. For one, I have become a very different statistic than the one reported the day I was born to a 15-year-old mother and a 17-year-old father. I trust those figures said something about the likelihood of various limitations. Sociologists may have predicted the amount of education I would secure and the number of children I would have by now. Nevertheless, many of us know God works with a different set of variables. While I cannot say that some of the limitations they predicted have not existed along the way, I can attest to the fact that God chooses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise (See 1 Corinthians 1:27).
When people see us, they are impressed with what they see now. They want to hate on us because of our education, positions of influence, or appearances. However, they would think twice if they only knew our testimonies. I may be a doctoral student at a Research 1 institution now, but that is not the whole story. My teenage parents resided in two separate hoods. You know, the places where Domino’s Pizza would not deliver. The haters will never consider how my mother finished high school and attended college. Oh, and they know nothing about how she caught four buses a day so she could get between two jobs. She worked to buy a Chevette, which she used to shuttle me to and from various church and school activities. Those activities, which required fees and transportation, helped to shape my future in immeasurable ways.
They see me, but they do not know the testimony.
As I celebrate this year, I cannot say that all of my dreams have come true. Like Esther, I have prepared myself for a king. Yet, my king has not arrived. Like Hannah, I have gotten ugly with my prayers. Yet, God has not given me a Samuel. While I could focus on all of the prayers that have gone unanswered, I choose to give thanks for the petitions that have been granted. “He’s brought me a mighty long way,” as the old mothers would say!
An old Baptist minister once told me, “Without tests, you have no testimony.” This Earth Day, I thank God for all of my tests, trials, tribulations and the testimonies that have been birthed out of them. I will not spend Monday looking in the mirror and lamenting about crow’s feet. I thank God for a face, a beautiful one at that. I will thank Him for His goodness, mercy and loving kindness. I will sing, “It’s just another day that the Lord has kept me.” I will write my own song and sing it until others are inspired to do the same!
Continue to walk in your blessings!
Copyright © 2008 Arlecia’s Doses of Inspiration by Arlecia D. Simmons.
All rights reserved.
2 comments:
It's funny how some people in the highest positions in any industry are the ones that usually triumph out tradegy...
I look at myself at 25 and my mom at 25, and realize that we were in two different worlds (she was a mother of three and I'm in the prime of my life, semi-responsibillity free).
I use her experiences to determine what I do and don't want out of life!
Arlecia, I feel blessed to have read your work. You are a strong and centered woman. What you said about Hannah brought to mind something one of my mother's friends told me a few years ago. She told me not to pray for a man, but to pray that the man would be ready when he found me and that I would be ready when I found him. God bless and keep up the inspirational work.
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