Our faith in God is what has brought us to this point...to creating this website...to sharing our stories. We both struggled for many painful years questioning why God would burden us with the emotional, physical and mental burdens of ED and BD.  It wasn't until we both took steps in our faith and personal relationships with God that we began to see a light at the end of the tunnel.  The more our faiths grew, individually and together, the more we realized that these burdens were not burdens at all, but opportunities.  Opportunities to tell our stories and help other people who are suffeing with ED and BD.  Has it been easy?...no, not at all.  But it isn't supposed to be.  

 

One of the greatest lessons that we have learned is the answer to questions that plague every person for one reason or another.  "Why am I suffering?"  "Why me?"  "What did I do to deserve this?"  "Why would God allow this to happen to me?".  When we were able to step outside of our situations, relinquish control to God and realize that He was ultimately in control, it was then, and only then, that our lives began to change.  We realized that we don't and won't always get the answers to our questions when WE want them.  Our attempt to control the situations and outcomes was leading us futher and further away from God.  

 

Control.  There is that word again.  It is like kryptonite.

 

We would love to tell you that devoting our lives to God made all of our issues go away overnight, but that just isn't real life.  That isn't how God works.  He has put each and every one of us on this earth with great intent and purpose.  You always hear that every situation has a silver lining, and that silver lining is God.  Not everything that happens to us, good or bad, is for our benefit.  Our greatest realization was that our struggles, our daily battles with insecurity, the pain and stress of ED and BD, the lonliness and the isolation...they actually had, and still have, a purpose.  Their purpose has nothing to do with us, but everything to do with God using us to help other people.  Our pain has purpose.  That acknowledgment and understanding in itself was a game-changer.

 

We wouldn't wish ED and BD on anyone, but we live in a broken world and this is what we have been given.  It is up to us whether we allow ourselves to be consumed by it, or if we search for God's silver lining.  So what is our silver lining?  Had we not been faced with ED and BD, we would never have grown such a close relationship and unbreakable bond with each other.  We try and put it into words and there just are no words to describe it.  We are best friends, we are confidants...we are extensions of one another.  One of the many reasons that we are in each others lives is to love, support and encourage each other, especially with our ED and BD.  The comfort and peace that comes from that are immeasurable.  But that is not it.  That is just one part of our silver lining.  

 

There was a nagging deep inside of both of us that wanted to help others who suffer from ED and BD. That nagging was the Holy Spirit inside of each of us, pushing us to let down our guards, be completely vulnerable and tell our stories.  You see, we know what you are going through because we have been there in one way or another.  Just as we have found strength in each other, our hope is that you find strength, inspiration, comfort and hope in our journeys and blogs.  

 

Helping other people who are suffering.  There it is, our silver lining.

 

 

LINKS & RESOURCES

 

For us, these message series from North Point Community Church were what pushed us through and gave us hope on some of our darker days.  Click the pics below to watch or listen online, or even download their app to stream from your phone or in your car.  Click HERE to download their free app.