Today, I’m recuperating from a hospital procedure, so we are doing “the best of the rest” sermon.  I originally preached this sermon about a year ago as the pandemic related government lock downs started and many people were afraid.

Life is full of struggles.  What do you struggle with?  I struggled with self esteem as a child and still do as an adult.  Here is an excerpt from today’s sermon:

I don’t know about you, but I struggle with a great many things in my life!  When I was a child, my self-esteem was very close to nonexistent.   I had no confidence in myself at all.  Later, as a young Christian and a teenager, I really wasn’t sure God could do anything with me either.  When you grow up being told over and over that you are worthless, you begin to believe it.   As a teenager in high school, I still had no confidence whatsoever and I lived in fear that I would never measure up to what my Mother expected of me.  I remember this bully, this guy who wanted to make a name for himself, kept shoving me while we were in front of the other boys during PE class.  He continually told me he’d give me a whipping (using more “colorful language”).  One day after school, he hid behind the gym to meet me; knowing that I walked that direction in order to cut across the field on my way to my part time job at the cotton mill.  He jumped out and proceeded to hit me.  Then, he jumped on my back.  I was much stronger than he, so I threw him off and ran off, shouting, “I won’t fight you!”  Interestingly enough, he never bothered me again, even though I had been tagged with a new nickname.  “Chicken.” 

It’s OK to struggle.  The thing we need to do is to learn to give our struggles to Christ.  he can help us to overcome them!  Catch today’s message entitled “It’s OK to struggle.