So this past summer I worked at Cooperstown Bible Camp, and we like to have a time just for the girls during our Senior High and Junior High camps. This year we decided to do an extra special exercise called Stand for Your Sister.
This exercise isn’t just any sort of exercise. This exercise involves all the participants to fill out a survey anonymously. The reason why you do it anonymously is because you are answering extremely tough and personal questions that are about all kinds of issues (mental health, drugs, family life and abuse). After filling out the survey everyone folds theirs in half and hands it in. The surveys are then shuffled and handed out again.
Now this is when the exercise starts to hit you, because now you have someone else’s paper and someone else has yours. This can be both terrifying and wonderful at the same time mostly because you can see how much the survey you have in your hand is similar to your own but also you know someone else is looking at yours.
Once everyone has a new (already filled out) survey, the woman leading this exercise explains that now she will read off each question one by one, and if that question on your survey has a yes next to it you will “Stand for Your Sister”.
This exercise affected me in so many ways. First I was heartbroken that anyone of the girls at camp this summer were going through or had gone through any of the things I had gone through. I never want any one to experience pain and especially if I have already experienced it, because I know how much it hurts. But also the experience of having someone else stand for me, was so powerful and it really shows just how much that no matter what you are going through, there is always someone else going through something similar.
Because of this exercise I have decided to continue to Stand for my Sisters in a few ways: 1. Writing blog posts about my sisters and how/why they inspire every day, with a word from them, 2. Encourage those who I know are going through hard times and be there for them when they need me, 3. Pray for all those going through tough times wether I know them or not.
With Love,
Laura Ann
Psalms 139:13-14
Laura’s Important Thoughts 