My message to HER is – be bold, be courageous, and be confident! Believe in yourself. Never be ashamed of your story, because it could help heal someone else. Use your lips to speak words of life, and use your hands to help others around you. Be kind. Love others. And more importantly, love yourself.
She knew that she was formed by God’s hands, dreamed up in His heart, and placed in this world for a purpose.
The Lord has used Erica in so many ways! So we asked her some questions we knew you guys would want to know! Here is what she said!
. 1,
Erica: Looking back all those years ago, it’s hard to pin point exactly ‘how’ I got to the place of feeling that my life had no value. I was raised by a single mother who always showered me with unconditional love, she always made me feel safe. It’s around the age 13 that I was dealing with many raw emotions of a broken relationship with my dad, and I don’t think at that age I knew what to do with those thoughts and emotions. It all spiraled into me feeling, well…hopeless, and I became depressed.
2. CCG: What advice would you give teens who think they have met "the one"
Erica: When I began my freshman year in High School, I was trying to put my best foot forward, and put that tragic summer behind me. But I was still looking for love in all the wrong places. I met a boy at the beginning of the year, and I quickly fell head over heels for him. He was my “one.”
I sometimes think about what advice I would have given to my younger self, and here’s what I would have said. Boyfriends can ‘make’ us feel a certain way sometimes. They’re so good at that! They can put big smiles on our faces on those days we need it the most. They can sometimes tell the funniest jokes, and make us laugh until our bellies ache. They can make us feel so safe, and loved, in their arms. They can make us wear that extra cute outfit to school that day, and make our hearts go pitter-patter when they send us that special text message. All that’s great. And there’s nothing wrong with any of that.
But don’t rush. Don’t be in a hurry. Enjoy your relationship, but create clear and healthy boundaries. Your body, mind and heart are so very precious! Take one day at a time.
And since God truly is the only one who knows who your ‘one’ is, we need not lean on our own understanding or fleshly desires, but put everything in His hands. And ask him to lead us. He hears all our prayers. Every single one.
Ask God to give you the clear understanding to know the difference between simply falling in love and knowing for certain that this is the person He wants you to spend the rest of your life with.
Erica: InspireHer Foundor
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