The Testimony!!!
"...life for me, aint been no crystal stair (poem...
Langston Hughes)
- Product of divorced
parents
- Fatherless from age four to age sixteen
- Childhood marked by poverty/lack/neglect
- Changed Schools seven
times by fourth grade (Indianapolis)
- Mother suffered from mental/emotional
illness
- Endured mother's inability to display affection (rarely hugged/touched)
- No memory of celebrated birthdays
- Grew up in various housing
projects and impoverished neighborhoods
- Early exposure to adult related activities
since the age of ten
- Insulted/put down due to the blackness of my skin
- Self esteem minimized/reduced to nothing
- Found stability
and family but rejection and hatred in Caddo Parrish Louisiana
- Also
exposed to a deeper and more rural poverty
- Endured extreme filth, roach and
rat infestation
- Home environment included diseased woodland creatures and
family pets
- No parental support at academic or athletic activities
- Upon returning to live with my father, I was relieved but depressed
- Experience
rejection from my father (unintentional) but real to me
- Helpless in protecting
my mother and sister against rape, abuse and molest
- My Big dream in life was
to own a dog and a passenger van (still unfulfilled)
- Covered my mother's
public nudity from friends on multiple occasions
I Learned
from my mother to "Never Give UP" just because things get hard. That's why I love the poem "Mother
To Son," by Langston Hughes. So no matter what your age, you can still live out your dreams if you don't blame
your current or former circumstances.
Pain can be used as a motivator to gain, like fuel that powers your
body and mind. We all have made poor decisions, misjudged or misunderstood another, therefore becoming an antagonist
(enemy) to that person without even knowing it. That's why forgiveness is so powerful. Imagine someone forgiving
you of "all your debt", of all the wrong you have ever done. Imagine just "re-paying your debt free life forward--living
your life in thanksgiving from this day forward. Helping others reach their place in Christ Jesus is an excellent way
of saying thanks for forgiving me.
