Hope Changes Everything! by Amy Freeman #BlogParty2011 #Church4Chicks

Today's post is especially meaningful for me to include because it comes from one of our very own Church 4 Chicks gals, Amy Freeman! I met Amy about a year ago when she began attending C4C with one of our other fab chicks, Ida, and we loved her from the start! She's been through a lot in her life, but she hasn't let it get the best of her. I know you'll enjoy this tid-bit from her and that you'll be encouraged to allow God to continue to fill you with His Hope!

Meet Amy Freeman!

Hope Changes Everything

Music gives my weary soul Hope when I have chosen to believe the enemies lies over God’s truth. Music is Hope. It pushes me forward through the hail, the wind, the rain and the oppression that comes through the trials and tribulations when I am walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Music is the language through which God speaks to me and give me Hope.

As I sit here and share this with y’all, my mind is taking me back to my days in high school. I loved high school, but I dealt with a lot of emotional baggage. My parents divorced when I was 15 and my world crumpled. My dad died when I was 16 and I shattered into millions of shards of glass because I wanted to hurt someone else, mainly my mother, before they could hurt me. My mother quickly remarried and that situation, coupled with the divorce, built up a tidal wave of bitterness that was waiting to be unleashed. This period of my life was dark and very hopeless. Why? I knew of Jesus Christ . . . but I did not KNOW Jesus Christ. I was lost. I gave my heart to Jesus during the sixteenth summer of my life. I went from a sour, lemon faced teenager to radiantly smiling teenager who took hold of the lemons of the past and starting pouring out and serving lemonade to everyone.

I tell you that little story so that we can fast forward you to the 17 year old teenager, sitting on the school bus feeling ugly, alone and unloved. You see my emotional baggage was still growing exponentially — a relative molested me about a month after I had turned my life over to Christ. Also, although the magnitude of the bitterness tidal wave had diminished some, it was still a very strong force that raged a battle within me. My relationship with my mother was fragile. She idolized my step father and I was very much in dislike with him. I didn’t trust him at all.

So here I sit on the bus. I’m on the verge of crying and I’m reading my bible and I’m listening to Steven Curtis Chapman’s “Fingerprints of God” and I come across this verse in Isaiah 49:15-16:

"Can a woman forget her suckling child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually before me." (KJV)

As I am reading those life transforming words, the lyrics to “Fingerprints of God” breaks through my subconscious and those words are sung, straight like an arrow, directly to my heart. The songs intro says:

“I can see the tears, filling your eyes, and I know where they’re coming from. They’re coming from a heart that’s broken in two by what you don’t see. The person in the mirror doesn’t look like the magazine, but when I look at you it’s clear to me — that I can see the fingerprints of God when I look at you . . .”

Wow! Hope flooded my soul and God’s words transformed and began healing my heart. Are my trials and tribulations over? No, they are part of this earthly life. I can tell you some stories from the past 15 years that would turn your hair grey . . . but as the hymn says —it is well with my Soul.

Don’t lose faith in God, NEVER give up HOPE. God loves you with an everlasting love that surpasses the human love of our earthly families. And just remember . . . “When I look at you . . . it’s clear to me — that I can see the fingerprints of God!"

A little more about Amy...

Hi, my name is Amy and I’m 29. I just went back to college at Kennesaw State to finish my BA in English. I want to get a Masters in Teaching and teach Middle or High School English. I love to spend time with my friends and I love when new doors open to meet people and have an opportunity to share my Jesus with them. I’ll warn you though; I can be CRAZY shy at times. I am passionately obsessed with butterflies and I lose all thought and reason when I see one because I have to track it down with my camera and take its beautiful picture. Butterflies give me Hope. They have such a struggle to come into this world out of their cocoons. It really is Ah-mazing! ;) Anyways, thanks for letting me share my heart. May my trials through tribulations give YOU Hope that God has a plan and purpose for everything that He allows!