Recovery is not easy. But as long as we believe, we will achieve.
As a child, I was a regular elementary school kid who liked school and sports. I was very athletic, I loved running track and playing soccer. Soccer was my favorite sport, and I had been playing since I learned to walk. I even made it to semi-pro, playing in stadiums. Teams wanted me on their rosters, and at 10, I was the captain of my team. I was close to achieving my dream of becoming a professional soccer player, until my life took a completely different turn.
At “home,” things were rough. I came from a household where no love was shown, where I was the runt of the “family,” neglected and abandoned. I ran away at 13, choosing the streets and gangbanging to seek the love I never received as a child. I was on my own. My so-called “parents” decided drugs were more important than their own children. I grew up fast and never really got to be a kid. I never had a father figure to teach me right from wrong, or even how to ride a bike. I craved love and attention that was never there.
So gangbanging, robbing, stealing, and lying were all I ever knew. Sometimes a hard head makes a hard ass and it takes a lot for someone to learn right from wrong. After three prison terms, by age 26, I had had enough. But I am a survivor.
When a human being takes a lot of hard knocks through abuse, neglect, and trauma, and still manages to survive, that is resilience. We survivors are resilient. Despite everything we endured as children, we continue to live, fight, breathe, and seek answers for our lives. No matter how much we’ve been through, there is still something worth rescuing inside us.
Some of us want to heal because our strength and power to stand tall through trauma and struggle is what makes us survivors. Being resilient means I and we survivors possess a powerful inner strength that no one can ever take from us.
I’m still in prison, now with children of my own. I’ve forgiven the people who hurt me not for their benefit, but for mine. I’m growing older, wiser, and smarter every day, working to better myself, not just for me, but for my two beautiful children, to give them the life I never had.
Recovery is not easy. But as long as we believe, we will achieve. Having faith in Jesus Christ opens the door to greatness, success, and blessings. 💯 God’s toughest warriors are the ones who struggle the most. 💯 Never break, never bend, never fold.
AMEN. Blessings. ♡
