Take Pride in the Persecution

So I know that I disappeared for a few days, but I was loving on my babies :)  I tried to blog from my new Droid X...but it was just taking too long.  [Plus I couldn't figure out how to put the pictures I wanted in]  Oh well... I'M HERE NOW!!!  And get ready to read cause its gonna get good lol

Pretty much for like ever I've been ... well ... persecuted.

Now, I'm not talking water boarding, torture, crucifixion type persecution. 

According to Merriam-Webster [.com of course], the definition of persecution is as follows:

1  :  The act or practice of persecuting especially those who differ in origin, religion or social outlook

2  :  The condition of being persecuted, harassed, or annoyed

I fall under the "2" category... "persecuted, harassed" AND "annoyed"

This week and basically my whole life I have been and am continuing to learn that some things are simply inevitable.  No matter how hard I try, where I move, or what I do, some things are EVERYWHERE and cannot be escaped.  Take for example -- ummmmm -- what's a good example??? 

Oh yeah... PEOPLE!!!! 

Unless you move to Antarctica,

you are going to come in contact with another person at some point in time.  I know it sucks, especially if you can't stand people, but hey...YOU ARE A PEOPLE!!  {And please remember that this blog is written to myself so by YOU I am actually saying "ERICA!"}  So even if I think that someone really doesn't have a heart or soul or conscious or feelings...he... i mean whoever it is really does.  God created us all that way.  We can't escape it.  "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me."  BULL FLINGIN' POO!  You can quote it all day long.  Tattoo it on you for all I care.  Nothing can change the fact that we, as humans, are hard-wired to feel.

Seriously as long as I can remember I have been called names, teased, bullied, basically harassed.

The first incidence happened when I was 10.  Just had moved to a new church in Greenville.  I was forced to leave behind everything I had ever known...including friends who were raised very similar to me.  So one night I'm at church minding my own business.  I literally was not doing ANYTHING to ANYONE.  I kinda was crushin on this one guy, but hadn't told anyone about it.  Next thing I know some kid [I didn't know from Adam] comes up to me, stomps on my foot, and calls me a "pervert."  Okay...so I'm 10! I've never heard this word in my life.  About a week later his girlfriend was calling me a whore.  Now let's be serious.  Again I say... I'm 10!  Really?!? I'm a WHORE!?!?!  (I swear I'm not bitter.)  I actually had to go home and look it up in the dictionary! 

Just wanna say...that was back in 2000...I can't imagine what kids are being called in 2010!

All of the kids at this church went to public school.  There is nothing wrong with that at all.  I mean I graduated from a public school and I'm quite proud of it.  But back home in Seneca, most people went to Oconee Christian Academy or were home schooled.  And I just so happened to be in the home school group.  Which apparently made me lame.  Anyways, so these kids knew things I didn't know and dressed completely different from me.  But I had to make friends.  So I did.  And I just wanted to fit in.  SOOO...I wore my first mini-skirt.  Well needless to say, my dress just started becoming more "wordly" if you will.  So we moved back to Seneca about a year later.  By that time I had started wearing make up [also to fit in], and unfortunately had started my cycle.  (Sorry if thats TMI, but it has to do with the story so calm down)  I was so excited to come back home...but when all my "friends" saw how I had changed, I was immediately ostracized.  All because I was 11, wore trendy clothes {therefore not dressing like a nun}, wore makeup, and had started my period, which was then assumed that I was sexually active.

That's when the persecution really began.

I began to harden my heart to anyone and everyone I came in contact with.  I started to believe that I was a slut because that's what I was told.  I viewed myself as a horrible person and began to hate myself.  Everything I'm learning now and trying to apply to my life now is to reverse what happened then...ten years ago.  (Proof that words can hurt you)

When I was 12 or 13, a camp counselor  recognized how hardened I was.  She told me that I needed to learn how to forgive and endure the persecution I was undergoing because God had a greater purpose for my life. 

About 2 weeks ago rumors started circulating that I am pregnant again.  I AM NOT.  I've learned that in Oconee County, when someone tells you something and its NOT about them...generally it isn't true.  But I can't control what other people believe.  My heart over the past few years has begun to harden again.  And in light of the most recent rumor, I've been kinda scared at how angry I've become.  So it was amazing when I pulled up the daily Bible verse app on my Droid X [YEAHH!!!] and the same verse my camp counselor gave me 7 or 8 years ago when my heart was broken and hard, was the same verse I was reading now, as my heart was broken and hard.

Okay...did you read that???  "BLESSED ARE YOU..."  "REJOICE AND BE GLAD!"  I don't know about you, but I'm thinkin...really, God, rejoice and be glad?  I mean, come on now.  But think about this verse really hard.  It doesn't matter if you're being persecuted for being a Christian, a black person, white person, green, yellow, blue, whatever color person.  It doesn't matter if you're being harassed because you stand up for what you believe in, you don't drink, do drugs, or smoke.  It DOESN'T MATTTER if you're being annoyed by people who believe every thing they hear and it is ALL lies.  What you're going through has been going on for thousands of years.  People have died for their beliefs and My Father says "BLESSED ARE YOU WHEN PEOPLE SAY FALSE THINGS ABOUT YOU FOR ME!" 

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.  And the Lord will never give you more than you can handle.  And if you feel like you can't handle it...its because He wants you to turn it over to Him [which proves you trust and believe in Him] so that HE can handle it FOR YOU!  But I say again, "REJOICE AND BE GLAD, because great is your reward, in Heaven..."

So...when those words begin to hurt...picture this (I love this picture.)  Take them like Christ took the lashings for you and for me on His back.  Remember this verse: 

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you... If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you... because they do not know Him who sent Me." John 15:18-21

And when the going gets really tough...this is my favorite...

Timothy 2:10-12

"Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect,

that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. This is a faithful saying:

 For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we endure, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us."
 
Take Pride in the Persecution