We Must Be Broken So We Can Glow

By Emilia Julian | December 22, 2018

You know how it goes with Social Media.  Sometimes you find the perfect little nugget of information that has inspired you in some fashion…it could be a photo, a story, a song or video, etc. … but you have no clue who the author or creator of it is.  Well, this is the case with the inspiring story I’m about to share with you.

Jackie, a good friend of mine, posted this on her Facebook wall, but I could tell it was one of those things that probably has been shared thousands of times and all it said at the bottom of the story was to copy and post…no author and no title either.  I’m not one to “copy and post” just because it tells me to.  However, if it has inspired me, made me giggle or laugh, warmed my heart, or simply put a smile on my face, I will gladly share it in hopes that it will do the same for someone else.  This is one of those stories that moved me I can relate to.  So here we go.

“In a store last night, there was a lady and two kids behind me in the LONG line. One was a big kid, and the other one was a toddler. The bigger one had a pack of glow sticks, and the toddler was screaming for them. The Mom opened the pack and gave him one which stopped his tears. He walked around with it smiling; but then the bigger boy took it, and the toddler started screaming again. Just as the Mom was about to fuss, the older child bent the glow stick and handed it back to the toddler. As we walked outside at the same time, the toddler noticed that the stick was now glowing; and his brother said, “I had to break it so that you could get the full effect from it.”

“I almost ran, because l could hear God saying to me, “I had to break you to show you why I created you. You had to go through it so you could fulfill your purpose.”

“That precious child was happy just swinging that “unbroken” glow stick around in the air, because he didn’t understand what it was created to do – which was “glow”.

“There are some people who will be content just “being,” but some of us that God has chosen… we have to be “broken.”

“We have to get sick.
“We have to lose a job.
“We go through a divorce.
“We have to bury our spouse, parents, best friend, or our child…

“In those moments of desperation, God is breaking us. But… when the breaking is done, then we will be able to see the reason for which we were created. So when you see us glowing, just know that we have been broken but healed by His Grace and Mercy!!!”

I, personally, as I’m sure many of you have also, been broken many times throughout my life.  I have suffered miscarriages, loneliness, fear, job loss, illnesses, and even some other personal struggles.  It was and is scary when we have to go through any kind of trial.  Being “broken” can hurt us, discourage us, and even shock us.  But we can either allow the hurt, discouragement, and shock to break us permanently, or we can allow our trials to make us stronger through our faith in Jesus Christ.

I don’t enjoy having to go through trials…I’m sure no one does.  But when my journey takes me down a road where experiencing tribulation is inevitable, I try to have a different mindset than I did in my earlier years.  I strive to endure my time of testing with an eternal perspective.  I try not to panic, but rather, I make an effort to brave the experience while having faith in the Savior, hope for what is to come, and peace knowing that my Father in Heaven loves me and blesses me accordingly.  I am His child.  I know He wants nothing more than the best for me, and He knows perfectly what that is.  It also helps to understand that Jesus Christ knows our pain.  He has felt it.  Through Him, we can trust that all will be well in the end.  Through Him, we can be healed.  I have also learned that as painful as our trials can become, they usually don’t last long in the grand scheme of things, and how I work through the tough times is essential.

Living the gospel to the best of my ability has sustained me in so many ways.  Having a true testimony of where I came from, why I am here, and where we are going after this probationary life, has blessed me with the strength and power to joyfully endure as best as I can.  Don’t get me wrong…I have moments of desperation and fear many times.  But I can usually gather my thoughts and feelings together, focus on the eternal perspective of things, and let God do His job on me in His way and His own due time so that someday I can begin to shine brighter than before I was broken.