This is the journey of a lonely caterpillar finding inner peace. Mrs. Harman gave the assignment: write and illustrate a story. Each page is to be typed with hand-drawn images. A gigantic task for an eleven-year-old. My subject: a lonely caterpillar. If we read between the lines of the story, we can see a little girl longing for acceptance and inner peace.
I was a lonely little girl, longing for attention. I felt cast aside and thought there had to be something wrong with me. Now, I can see the seeds of people-pleasing being planted; a monstrous vine that would almost choke out a sweet, good-natured girl.
As I got older, “I was lookin’ for love in all the wrong places, lookin’ for love in too many faces.”* I continued to conform myself to what I thought someone wanted from me. Through this behavior, I became consumed by disappointment and anger. I couldn’t see how lost and confused I was.
Then I met God. He loved me for who I was, and didn’t condemn me as a bad person. He loved me despite my mistakes or my performance. Through my relationship with God, I could apply the faith I had in Him to myself and experience genuine acceptance and inner peace.
The more I relied on God, and not people, the healthier my relationships with people became. Now I refocus my expectations, establish boundaries, and believe in my God-given attributes. I can be ME!
It was so encouraging when they selected my little book to tour in the state’s book mobile that summer. Maybe that is when my love for writing was born!
Are you searching? Connect to God. He is waiting for you.
*”Lookin’ for Love” by Johnny Lee, 1980
“Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11
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