Hidden Struggles: Purity, God, Guys and Life
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About this ebook
The teenage years are some of the most difficult years any of us pass through. While issues with identity, relationships and an emerging value system are universal, each generation in addition struggles with their own unique set of cultural challenges. Some struggles are often unseen to those around us as we fight an inner battle. Twenty one year old Rachel Hamilton is a voice for today's youth speaking into the issues young women grapple with. Speaking openly and honestly about her own struggles she aims to strengthen and empower others through her experiences and thoughts. Hidden Struggles covers the areas of purity, waiting, modesty, relationships, God and life. While single women of all ages will find things they can identify with, there is no information too explicit for young readers. Hidden Struggles is a guide to becoming the woman God created you to be.
Rachel Hamilton
Rachel Hamilton is the founder of It's Worth the Wait. Becoming God's Men and Women in Waiting ministry, an online ministry to encourage those who are waiting on God for his best. She struggled in many areas growing up, and she wants to strengthen and encourage young women on their life journey. Rachel lives in New Zealand and was homeschooled growing up.
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Hidden Struggles - Rachel Hamilton
Hidden
Struggles
PURITY, GOD, GUYS AND LIFE
Rachel Hamilton
30083.pngCopyright © 2013 Rachel Hamilton.
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Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV
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ISBN: 978-1-4908-0646-4 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4908-0645-7 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-4908-0647-1 (e)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013915561
WestBow Press rev. date: 08/29/2013
Table of Contents
Heart to Heart
Only A Girl
My Testimony Part One
My Testimony Part 2
Praying
Precious Pain
Suicide
Waiting Game
The Devils Lying Lines
Learning To Love Yourself
Your Inner You
Dare to De Different
When Your Role Models Let You Down
The Pity Party
First Love
My Way Or Your Way
Learning To Hear Gods Voice
Walking The Path Less Travelled
How Important Is Modesty Really?
What Christian Guys Want Girls To Know
Love List
Mythical Milestones
The Fantasy World
The Battle of the Mind
Courting Or Dating Does It Matter?
Attraction or Reaction
I Love Him Because I’m Lonely
The Power of Touch
Never A Bride
Thanks
About the Author
Dedicated to
Rebecca, Emily, Susanna Williams, Shardae Noone and Emma Young.
You mean so much to me, you are amazing and
I am so thankful that you are part of my life.
Heart to Heart
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4
L IKE ALL MY GENERATION I’M into computers big time. A day that doesn’t start with Face book doesn’t seem like a day at all. I saved up and bought my first laptop a couple of years ago and boy was I excited to play with it. Even though I’m pretty savvy with computers I still get surprises as it does so much more than I at first realised. Sometimes I think life is like a computer. I’ve just managed to crawl out of the teen years which were a pretty tough learning curve and I think I’ve learnt a lot about the way God has uniquely programmed me, but I still stumble across facets of myself I didn’t realise existed.
I would never have thought of myself as a writer but somehow the wind of the Holy Spirit seems to be blowing my boat down a river of words. I find it weird that I, who hid my teenage struggles from those nearest and dearest to me am making public the deepest most vulnerable part of my heart. Because it is the way of God to take water and make it into wine, to turn the broken vessel into an incense dispenser, I reveal to you the secret struggles of my heart. If by Gods grace I can help just one person through the lonely, treacherous valley of adolescence it will have been worth it all.
Only A Girl
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28
W HEN YOU WANT TO MAKE a difference it is difficult to be happy with an ordinary life.
My goal is to touch other people’s lives with good. Naturally this kind of attitude is not popular with the devil so he fed me the big lie that because I was a girl I was a lesser person and I could never be as brave or as strong as a guy. (This whooper is century’s old but still effective.) I swallowed the lie and as it sunk deep into me I begin to hate who I was and couldn’t see how God could use me with the insurmountable handicap of being a woman. It was a mystery why God had bothered to make me. I struggled with feeling second rate until God showed me that in his eyes we are not male or female, rich or poor. It was such a comfort to me to realise that God can and will use me. He not just looking for men, he’s looking for a willing heart, that’s what makes him smile he will use anyone who is willing. And it is so exciting when he does!
When most little girls are dreaming of owning a horse the one thing I wanted more than anything was to have a TESTOMONY. I had asked Jesus into my heart as a young child and it was so simple it didn’t seem to qualify as a REAL testimony. It was a crazy dream for a shy little girl who never stuck out in a crowd and liked to blend into the background. I didn’t like strangers even looking at me and would rather be safe at home with my family than meet new people. But deep down I had a dream, a dream since I was very young, I wanted to be missionary. I wanted to work in an orphanage that would surely be a TESTOMONY. Often I would search on the internet for a missions trip but nothing ever worked out. It wasn’t until I was nineteen that God opened the door for me to go onboard a mission ship for three months. I was so excited to be involved in a huge adventure and finally have a TESTOMONY.
My Testimony Part One
Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. Isaiah 1:17
I BOARDED THE SHIP THE Logos Hope
in Dubai and set sail to Sri Lanka. The nine day sail to Sri Lanka was an enjoyable time and a great opportunity to get to know fellow crew members before the ship docked and opened its doors to the seething crowds that flocked up the gang plank. Together we experienced standing on the deck with nothing but water to see, watched hundreds of dolphins jump through the waves and large water snakes and jelly fish swim by. The sun rose and set dramatically and the waves rocked us to sleep at night. We were four hundred people from fifty different countries and it was incredible to experience how beautifully the many cultures worked together. People on the ship really showed Gods love in their everyday life even if it was just with a smile or hug.
Before we arrived in Sri Lanka, I really didn’t know what to expect, we had been briefed about Sri Lanka but to be quite honest I was rather scared of meeting Sri Lankan’s. The first day the ship was open to the public, I went down to meet the locals on a deck set aside for it. The Sri Lankans are warm and special people and by the end of the day I felt a real connection with them. Being a New Zealander made me particularly popular as New Zealand had been playing cricket against Sri Lanka and lost. I could always count on raising an enthusiastic banter about New Zealand’s inferior cricket skills. In a corner away from the cricket fans, I noticed an old lady sitting alone she looked so sad that I went to talk to her. She told me her life story and