Happy New Week everyone!
I hope you are as excited as I am about this week? My birthday is about two weeks away. Yay!
But this post isn’t about that.
The share Your Story series continues on the blog today and we have Bolaji( www.omobolaji.com), my beautiful sister sharing her story with us today.
If you are just joining us, the Share Your Story, Own Your Brokenness series is a series that was started with the aim of laying our lives bare – the hurt, the pain, the things we’d rather hide…sharing it all, releasing the past so we can walk in the now and inspire others to let the past go too.
It started with my story – of abortions and God’s grace.
And I’m sorry, I had issues with uploading the video where I shared my story at a conference.
It will be up before the series is over hopefully.
For today, read Bolaji’s story below…
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After I asked Frances that Iâd love to do a guest post on her blog, she told me about âShareYourStoryâ, and as I thought about what to write. I heard in my spirit, âtalk about suicide.â
I immediately said âSuicide ke?â
Iâve never wanted to kill myself na? Or so I thought.
I then started remembering somethings that happened in my past and it was like I was watching a movie.
âWas that me?â was what I kept asking myself. It was like all these memories were wiped out of my head and there are still some that Iâm sure I cannot remember.
Anyways, so after I thought of if I had ever considered suicide, God played a scene in my head.
I was washing plates or so in the kitchen at night and from our kitchen then, one could also see our landlordâs kitchen. His daughter was/is my friend and I could see her also doing something there, then the devil started feeding me lies.
âYouâre not good enough.â
âSee how your mate is looking vibrant and youâre here getting fat and ugly.â
âAll your mates will finish school and youâd still be here wasting your life away.â
âYouâre the only boarder girl that has not gotten admission.â
âNobody loves you.â
âYou are a liability to your family.â âYou should be ashamed.â
âItâs better if you even kill yourself.â
At the point the devil suggested that I kill myself, I was washing a knife.
I am crying as I write this because it is hard for me to believe that that was me, accepting the devilâs lies. I cry because I know it could have been serious, that I could have totally accepted to kill myself.
That I could have brought my family so much pain.
That I could have allowed my dear mother to live with guilt for the rest of her life.
That I could have died not finding out what God had in store for me.
That I could have died not getting to see my first sister prepare for marriage.
That I could have died because I could not merely gain admission. But God, the love of my life, the reason I have hope and purpose rescued me.
I cannot count the number of times I cried in a day during that period. If I did anything and made a mistake, I immediately heard the devil tell me it was because I was useless and could not think straight. Even if it was something as little as cutting a piece of meat too small or big, it was due to my ugliness. I gained over 10kg during that period and mean remarks from people did not help my case. Calls from âfriendsâ became less frequent and it was like everyone had deserted me.
I remember now that I tweeted one disturbing thing on twitter and my sister quickly pinged me when she saw it to ask what I meant.
Please, donât ever think that suicide is not an African thing or that Nigerians are strong so we never think of suicide. It is simply a thing of the mind and anyone can think of it.
See, the devil is a big fat liar!
And thoughts of suicide can be there even when one is surrounded by loving people! Please, constantly check on someone if you think they are going through a hard time. It encourages all of us when we know that people care and are in all our hurt and pain with us!
I bought a âThinking of youâ card and wrote some encouraging things in it for my elder sister sometime back, because she had been unemployed for some time and was constantly the only one at home. I knew that I had gone through something similar and although I know sheâs born again, I still thought it was important to let her know that I loved her and “joblessness” was not the end of the world.
Jesus saved me. He rescued me from darkness and spoke new things into my life. Itâs not that He wasnât speaking all through that time, but there was no way I could hear Him because I was not born-again and never read my Bible; although I went to church every Sunday.
As I think of it, I can say that if I knew so many things still lay ahead, I would not have even worried one bit!
Now that Iâve gained admission, schooling still comes with itâs own challenges that I have to deal with every day. Will I think of killing myself because of the loads of assignments I now have to write? Abeg, the devil is a liar.
Now, I have fallen head over heels in love with myself. All I hear from my savior now is âBolaji, youâre beautiful.â âYouâre talented and useful.â
âI made you for a purpose.â
âYouâre a vessel unto honour.â
âYouâre important and your friends and family love you.â
âYouâre good enough!â
âYouâre fearfully and wonderfully made.â
âKeep it up, you can do more!â
âI knew you before you were born.â
âI love you and absolutely nothing can separate you from my love.â
I hear these lovely remarks daily and I just want to end by saying this â JESUS SAVES. I know, because HE SAVED ME!
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8 Comments
thegracedmisfit
August 24, 2015 at 12:55 pmWhat a bold, beautiful story of God’s saving grace. Thank you for sharing your story, Bola. Reading it made me so happy as I reflected on the depths from which God pulled me as well.
May the Lord who kept you and healed you so well that the scars faded, continue to keep you and use you to encourage others. I especially like what you said about reaching out to people who we suspect to be going through a tough time. The smallest act of concern and love can make all the difference.
Frances Okoro
August 24, 2015 at 2:41 pmAmen and amen Gracedmisfit. Amen!
Her story will draw others out of the dregs too… and yes, that’s the essence of “share your story”, that we will see that God restores and makes whole..yes, He does!
Happy new week sis 🙂
Tope BANKS
August 28, 2015 at 9:23 amI read the post last week but was too weak to comment so I didn’t say anything. The Devil and his mother in law are bastards o. Thank God for your life Bolaji.
Frances Okoro
August 29, 2015 at 7:29 amLoooolllllll Temi, serious bastards… sooo much ahead of Bolaji, God knew that and He kept her!
Charles
August 31, 2015 at 11:43 pmHi Frances… This is so wonderful. I would have contacted you a long time ago when i first came across your blog but something i can’t explain took me over. Its a great job here. I pray for God’s mercies and more grace as you step ahead in this beautiful task. God bless. (papa Emeka, DELSU, Oleh campus)
Frances Okoro
September 2, 2015 at 3:24 pmAmen and amen Charles, amen and thank you!
Oh, I see that you have ties with Oleh campus too, we prolly know each other? Though I can’t place your name..
Mobolaji
September 2, 2015 at 7:15 amThank you guys! I really appreciate your thoughts.
God bless you Frances for sharing this! I know I have a backlog of comments to make, but I’d def be back! Thanks babe!
You’re God’s own!?
Frances Okoro
September 2, 2015 at 3:26 pm🙂 we’ll be waiting for you when you come back B…
I am thankful for your life..lots more in store for you babes, good things, great things..He didn’t save you to end there, He just started. Yes! Yes! Yes!