From Pain to Purpose

My bad decisions have taken me on a terrible journey. A sad journey of a young girl who spent most of her life trying to find a place to fit in: looking for love in all the wrong places and all the wrong faces. Not understanding that the greatest love in this world comes from within. Unable to accept my life challenges, I found myself in unimaginable places addicted to drugs and alcohol, doing whatever it took to survive. But what would have been the end for most - ultimately turns out to be the opportunity to grow and overcome my dark past. Facing a life without parole sentence in the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, I learned to stop playing the blame game and accept responsibility for the decisions that I made, ask for help & forgiveness, and to be willing to give that which has been given to me.

Of all the bad decisions that have been made - the biggest would be not sharing what God has revealed to me through the overcoming of adversities. I have learned that it is not the events in life that determine the result - it is how we choose to respond to them. Today, I choose to see challenges as opportunities to grow, so that once I have learned the lesson, I can apply that truth, reap the benefits of living that truth, then share that truth with others. I have heard many people say –“it is what it is”, and now understand that my truth is:

“Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again." - Dag Hammarskjold