Faces of Affirmation
I put on a happy face during my teenage years. Not even my family knew how much I was hurting. So please understand that your/our children are listening. Negative comments about LGBTQ people or negative comments about gay marriage will hurt. The wounds can run deep and are long lasting.
Colin from Australia shares how his experience at the Affirmation Conference replaced guilt and shame with healing and “a real sense of self-acceptance and loving who I am.”
By Joaquín Bustamante, President, Affirmation – Chile
I know firmly that it does not matter where we are, but rather that what is important is to serve our fellow human beings. In Affirmation I have this opportunity to give love and give my time to a work of love and excellence. Read Joaquín’s full story here.
One day it occurred to him that he’d never thought to ask God how He felt about his being gay. He prayed with that question and described his experience in his story. I immediately dropped my book and finally asked God what His thoughts were about my life.
I received spiritual insights, bit by bit, teaching me and giving me peace and understanding. Being gay would not keep me from becoming the man God wanted me to be. I now believe that it is only the gay me, not some imaginary straight me, that will be able to do and become what he is supposed to in this life.
The great temptation in my life has been to prematurely resolve the great problems quickly and easily in one direction or another. But there have been profound moments in my life when I have been forced to acknowledge, like Moses, “Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed.”
Despite all my doubts, the biggest comfort I find is in God’s love. I know that God loves each and every single one of his children. My testimony is God’s love, and that it is available to each and every one of us, even when we don’t think possible.
Thankfully, I have been able to accept that being a lesbian was somehow part of the plan, and in many ways I am thankful this is part of my experience in my daily life.
“Your coming out has become a wonderful journey for us. So, thanks.”