As a very young child, I was raised in a household filled with doom, gloom, poverty, and shame... And when I married at the age of sixteen, I was already steeped in a way of life as a female; whom were looked upon as less than a man. Only now, despair was added to my host of painful, negative emotions... Nobody but God freed me from the house of bondage... Now, here in my ladder years, I live in the house, my house of love, peace, joy, wholeness and prosperity; nothing broken and nothing missing in my spirit... Thanks be unto Father God, Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. As far as I'm concerned, what Satan purposed for my destruction, the Lord purposed for my destiny! Glory! With the leadership of the Holy Spirit in my life, and many of God's blessings, my struggling opened the door for my writing, and my writing opened the door to my prayer life... Now I had someone to talk with, I could express in my writing what I was truly feeling on the inside, when people's words, mistreatments, and disappointments had hurt me... No matter how insignificant their words were, or what they did or didn't do, I could always tell God the truth about my hurt feelings. And He always allowed me to cry for as long as I needed to... My tears were God's way of washing away the hurt and replacing it with tenderness and love, putting me back together... This was and is how I cope with life even today...My prayer life goes beyond pen and paper; I'm constantly talking to God in my mind throughout my day and night. This is who I am.