Marquetta speaks....

Emotional abuse from a teenager’s point of view Once again “I’m at the stupid doctor’s office on my birthday and I betcha this one cannot tell me what’s wrong with me”. “Happy 17 th birthday to me”. Maybe I’m making this stuff up in my head”, Crystal thought to herself . “Darn, dad’s calling me again. “Yeah dad I’m here…I’m getting ready to go in now”. “I got a call from one of your teachers today her dad explained, and Mrs. Bea told me that you are failing chemistry.” “How many times do I have to tell your stupid ass to study”….Do you want to be like your mom….a bitch who died with no education”. “You gonna have to get your shit together Crystal…call me when you leave the doctor’s office….I am so tired of your sick ass wasting my money on those doctors”…. click . He hung up. Crystal’s stomach started hurting worse but she managed to drag herself into the doctor’s office. And once again the doctor could not tell her why she was in pain. They had run test after tes...

We recently visited a nursing home in our area and gave out lap quilts that we made (my family and mom’s church). I can’t tell you how rewarding this was just to see the faces of the individuals light up. I felt so blessed to be able to give something away that was made with so much love and so much care.  In this moment, I truly realized how much handmade items are really appreciated. It was just like each lap quilt was made uniquely for that individual. You can truly tell when God is in something. Each of their faces lit up with excitement as each lap quilt was given to them.  One lap quilt was made by a lady who at the time she was making it, made it with the sole purpose to give it away to her male cousin who was in the nursing home. The lady who made the quilt was on the other side of the nursing home giving items out while we gave out the quilt she made to a gentleman in a wheelchair. Not knowing who this man was we gave the quilt to. Several minutes later t...

Remember this childhood rhyme: “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me”. Some of us used to say this little one-liner of a rhyme when growing up to prove to the bully that their words had no power and those negative words that were thrown at us can never hurt us. WOW, how wrong! How many times have you heard the words “you are stupid”, “you are so dumb”, “you can’t do anything right”, “you are a waste of space”, or better yet how many times have we told our children these same words? These very hurtful words become engrained in their hearts and spirits and eventually our children will believe these daunting words and soon after live out these words. Did you know that emotional abuse can be one of the most deadliest forms of abuse? However, societies around the world have made us believe that physical abuse is the most harmful of all of the types of abuses a person can suffer from.  They have also implied that physical abuse is the only t...

I was driving one morning to work and on that particular morning the traffic was very heavy. So I decided to take another route to work. While driving, I saw a building that caught my eye. I had to take a second look at this building. It wasn’t anything special about this building, but it made me take another look at it. The building was located within a store front outdoor shopping area where all of the stores connected to each other.  The second time I looked at the building I noticed that it had the name of a church. The writing was not big nor did it have a church look or feel to it. Then I heard in the spirit that God is placing spiritual hospitals throughout the world. These locations will not be easily detected and they will not have the outward appearance of being a church.  I then began to ask God what was He doing? He shared with me that the church as we know it will not be able to handle the masses of people who God is ushering into His kingdom. The chu...

A young lady named Sandra bravely shares her mother’s story of how her mother overcame her painful past through the art of sewing…… It was the week of my mother's birthday. She was turning 56 years old. I could tell she wasn’t feeling good that week. She had worked so many long hours at work and had been complaining of severe back pain. And the phone calls….so many prank phone calls. My dad had come home one night and demanded that mom and I come downstairs. He had this crazy look in his eyes. I knew something was not right. He began to tell us that he knew that we had been prying into his private life and that we should stay out of his business. He was talking about the phone calls his mistresses were making to momma.  He was yelling and screaming and making threats to us that if we did not stay out of his private life that he would have to put an end to it. Mom was sitting down listening to all of this while trying to tell him that the women had been calling her.....

Driving home from work, Sandra looks at her watch nervously and says to herself, “I’m late again”. “I wish my boss wouldn’t hold such long meetings especially when it gets closer to the time we should being getting off”. She is going over in her head all of the things she has to do before she goes home…stop by the grocery store, pick up John’s pants at the seamstress, and get Andy from the babysitter. Sandra says out loud, “ I can’t be late again. I just can’t be late again”. After a long day at work and making all of her errands, she finally makes it home. Mike, Sandra’s husband is waiting quietly in the kitchen as she walks in. Quickly Mike knocks everything out of Sandra’s hand and then he pulls her to the floor by her hair. Sandra screams out, “You promised you wouldn’t hit me again!”   This is a living nightmare for so many victims of abuse every single day. For some individuals, it is a never ending cycle that is repeated over and over again. When abusers pro...