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This is the very pew that I sat in when I was a little girl. When I was a little girl,
learning about Jesus, coming to church with my parents, with my family, all the time.
Being actively involved in everything. Doing vacation bible school and going to camp in
the summer. I learned a lot about God, here in the place.
And at the same time, there were a lot of feelings that I was experiencing as I was
growing up. Feelings that I didn't understand. Especially as I got into those teenage years.
I realized that there were feelings that I was experiencing, when all the other girls
were crazy about boys, and talking about boys, I liked boys, there was a boy I liked, but
there were also feelings that I was beginning to have for girls that I didn't understand.
And that I was hearing that those were not the right feelings to have, but I didn't know
what to do about that. I felt a lot of times like I didn't fit in,
and I didn't quite know how to fit in or what to do with that. I liked boys, but I didn't
quite know what my role was suppose to be with a boy, as a girl, and that was confusing
for me as a little girl growing up, as a teenager growing up.
I needed a place that I could talk about those feelings, and I wanted to find that here in
this place called church, where I loved the people, and the people loved me.
But I didn't always feel safe in doing that. I would have give anything to find someone
that I could have talked to, to have had those conversations with and asked those questions.
There are safe people. I've come to learn that I could have had those conversations
with. But I didn't always know that when I was younger. I wish I had, because that would
have made all the difference in my life.