Margee Cher C. Do, 28, is a government employee and mother of two. She enjoys reading and was a schoolteacher before joining government service. She wants to be a freelance writer doing feature stories and is finishing her master’s in communication.
I grew up in a house. They say a house is different from a home. My mom and dad separated when I was six. And so my sisters and I spent the next years alone. I grew up alone. While all other kids had their parents in PTA conferences, we were alone. We did our assignments and projects alone. We dealt with the first day of menstruation alone. Quietly, we fell in love and our hearts were broken and we were alone.
Over the years, I developed a deep sense of inferiority complex. I was insecure. I became high maintenance. I looked for love in all the wrong places. I was vivacious and flamboyant. I was always surrounded by boys, and friends. But inside, I was empty and scared.
In my 17th year, I started rebelling. The hatred in me welled up, choking and suffocating me. I needed an outlet and I thought I had found one. I rebelled against anything and anyone. I hated life itself and tried to end it once too often. I got pregnant at that age and because of lack of guidance I got married for the wrong reasons.
Then things started to fall. It was as if I knew it was coming all along but did not do anything to prevent it. I knew I wouldn’t be able to survive marriage at 17, and I didn’t. We parted ways and I was left with virtually nothing but a baby in tow.
I had to be responsible and work. As I started to pick my life again, bit by bit, I picked up something that changed me entirely and my perspective of life: Harold Sala’s Guidelines for Finding Your Way: Encouragement for the Seasons of Life.
In the year 2000, my life changed drastically. I fell in love with Jesus. A co-worker, Noel, gave me Guidelines For Finding Your Way and until now, whenever I feel something and need something, I consult the book and I learn a different approach to my problem.
I was nothing but now I’ve become something. Jesus gave me the reason for living, and throughout the seasons of my life, Sala’s book gives me encouragement and a positive attitude towards negative issues. Plus, Noel and I came to know each other more, and after filing getting my first marriage annulled, we got married.
I have weathered life. I have been alone and afraid. I have been angry and frustrated. I have learned lessons the hard way. I picked up the pieces of my life from scratch, and in the end, I emerged victorious. And though sometimes things don’t turn out the way I hope them to be, I know God has a plan for me and that everything will work out the way He plans it to be.