There’s a line in my poem that says, “All I want is to play my guitar and sing my pain away.” Music became the place where I could release what I couldn’t say out loud. There were years I didn’t tell anyone about the abuse I endured. I carried it quietly. I functioned. I smiled. I moved forward.
Silence doesn’t always destroy you, but it can shape you. And for a long time, I let it shape me. I didn’t fully understand reaping and sowing back then, how choices and wounds and unresolved pain can influence who you connect with and what you accept. Sometimes we walk into situations that make no sense to others. But spiritual laws are real. We reap what we sow, whether we recognize it or not.
The beautiful part is this: God redeems even what we reap. He heals what we didn’t know how to fix. He restores what we thought was permanent damage. When I finally began sharing my story, it wasn’t for sympathy, it was testimony. If God can pull someone out of trauma and draw her near to Him, He can do it for anyone.
That’s why I tell teens: drawing near to God is not strange. It’s not outdated. It’s not extreme. It is life. Everything else fades. Everything else shifts. But intimacy with the Father, that’s what sustains you when the music stops and the room gets quiet.
God bless, Shirah Chante, your relationship coach
PS: If this story spoke to you, listen to the full episode of Teens Draw Near to God, All is Vanity Part 2: A Father’s Advicefor the deeper conversation behind this message.