TeenConnect: Trending March 11, 2019 Issue

Who am I now?

Ashleigh Helms

Originally appeared online in the teen series: Trending - January 23, 2019

From the time I was two years old, gymnastics was my love, my passion, and my life. As soon as I was old enough, for four and a half hours a day, five days a week, I was in the gym: flipping, swinging, and twisting. However, by tenth grade, I didn’t feel the same joy about gymnastics that I previously had, because of the huge time commitment and stress.

Gymnastics set me apart from my peers, so it terrified me to think about losing that as part of my identity. Would I instantly fade into the crowd? After months of a torturous internal tug of war over whether I should continue or quit, I decided that I needed to turn to God for guidance, just as Christian Science Sunday School had been teaching me to do. I felt like I didn’t have a clear idea of what I should do, but I knew that through prayer, I would be led in the right direction.

One night, when I was feeling especially dismayed, I flipped open my copy of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy to get some inspiration for my prayers. In the Preface, I read this passage: “To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings” (p. vii). I had been struggling to see which path would lead to more blessings, but after I read this sentence, it occurred to me that no matter which path God led me down, I would still be blessed. Since God is infinite, there really could be no limitations on the good that was in store for me.

Send a comment to the editors