Perfect Joy by Stephanie Perry Moore

Author:Stephanie Perry Moore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Moody Publishers

5

Damaged

Smile

I was speechless. How was this happening? I hadn’t been the best friend to Layah and Riana, but I hadn’t talked about them behind their backs either.

Slick Imani said, “Come on, y’all.”

Riana replied, “I thought we were always going to be friends. How could you dog us behind our backs, Carmen?”

Riana turned and walked away, not giving me a chance to explain. Again, I couldn’t believe all this was happening.

Standing in the hall, watching Imani lead my two best friends away was hard to take. I wanted to run and tell them that I didn’t say that they had no fashion sense, but my legs wouldn’t move. In my heart I wanted to cry, but I was so stunned that no tears fell.

My face held the saddest look as I turned and walked by myself, for what seemed like the longest walk to class in my life. I was officially friendless. Me, Carmen Browne. Me, Miss Popularity. Why would Imani do this to me? Why would she go and get the outfit I told her I wanted? Why would she tell my friends that I said something negative about them when she was the one who said it? My heart felt broken in a million pieces. I had been betrayed.

Lord, I prayed silently as I walked step by step to my class, “maybe I was feeling too good about myself. I was happy that I was a Christian and pumped that I had some of the coolest clothes in the school, and sort of happy that boys thought I was cute. But what did all that mean? It shouldn’t be about me; it should be about You. And now You brought me back to reality, huh? I see that so clearly now. I didn’t deserve Imani turning on me like that, but maybe You allowed her to do that so that I would be humble. And, Lord, I am. Nobody comes before You, not even me. I’m sorry.

Though my eyes were open, my heart was speaking sincerely to God. I looked at people in the hall with a different view. I didn’t look at them with an uppity feeling. I knew I was no better than anyone else.

So I continued praying. Thanks for teaching me that. It’s tough and my face doesn’t look happy because deep inside I’m hurt. But I know that You can fix me. You can even fix Imani. You can fix what’s wrong between Layah, Riana, and myself. I’m stepping aside and letting You work. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Praying to God always made me feel better. It worked this time as well. I wasn’t all smiles or anything, but I wasn’t so down either. Why should I be? God was with me and He could work anything out, even friendship stuff. He had done it before. I had to trust Him to do it again.

Thinking that way, by faith I did something I hadn’t done all day. I cracked a smile. I was glad to still have God as a friend.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.