Much more
“I will close with this,” Amelia stated looking at the young women who attended the annual women’s conference – THE NEW NORMAL where she was opportune to be one of the guest speakers.
“You may not get the point of this story, but, it’s one of the things that made me realise that women could be so much more” she began.
“Growing up, morning devotions weren’t exactly an everyday thing in my house. I know some of you will be having thoughts like: ‘That’s pretty normal’, ‘I can’t remember the last time I prayed’, ‘I don’t even pray at all’, and all that. But, for someone who grew up in a pretty strict religious family, prayers and the ‘God factor’ were core aspects of my values. But then, despite being a pretty religious family with strong values, devotions weren’t a constant thing and here is why: First of all, there is Emmy, my elder brother, who would always come for devotions with a wrapper to cover himself with while dragging the elastic band of his shorts. I don’t know why he was hell-bent on expanding the band, but I sure know doing that was a bad idea. He always slept unabashedly and was rarely disturbed. Being a first child sure has its perks, Lol.” Amelia smiled, a distant look in her eyes. It was obvious that somewhere in her mind, she had gone back in time.
“The second person on my list is my dad. He always sang in this voice that made me feel like he was snoring. I know we were supposed to concentrate during prayers but trust me, with my dad singing like that, it’s a totally different story. Least I forget, he falls asleep too. I once went for devotion with an empty drug packet so I could throw it at him.”
Suddenly, some people starting laughing and she knew why. Sometimes, she had a hard time believing she that she had done that.
“And of course, there is my mum the most enthusiastic person about devotions.” She continued. “She usually held a cane, the proverbial rod of correction which she made sure not to spare as she didn’t want her children spoilt. The twins in the family Maria and May always fell victim to her flogging. They weren’t smart enough to sit as far away as possible from her. But then, I doubt it would have worked. The mum I remember would have dragged them right back, and had them sit beside her.
I’m not trying to paint a great picture of myself but, I slept the least during devotions even though there was this one time I crept behind a couch to sleep. My mum had gone on and on with one of those long devotions of hers on New Year’s Eve, forgetting we still had to go to church the next day being New Year’s Day. I was so sleepy that I pushed the couch slightly and crept behind it to sleep.” The people sitted in the hall laughed again.
“You are all laughing” Amelia smiled. “Those of you from pretty strict religious families can tell what it feels like to sit through a two-hour devotion or even longer. True or false?” “True!” some part of her audience replied.
“So, with the way we all acted during devotions, it was so discouraging that my mom ended up praying differently. But she didn’t give up on the idea of having devotions entirely because she made us pray on our own too. So, general devotions became something that only happened when my mum is feeling too religious, when the ‘still small voice’ tells her to pray with us, when anyone had a nightmare or when she is filled with a sense of foreboding” At this point in her story, Amelia already had most of the young people sitted in the hall laughing. It was ironic how she claimed she came from a pretty strict religious family, yet they rarely had devotions together.
“You know the whole point of this story is that growing up, my mum made me realize how important the God factor is. And as a result of it, I wanted to do everything within my power to show that I acknowledged and respect him. But then, this urge to acknowledge and respect God was not one I felt like I could do in a big, big way. After all, going to church, with my parents as a child, most of the people who did powerful things like praying down the spirit of God and deliverance ministers were all men. Though I didn’t realise it then, at that point, my little mind believed women weren’t allowed or more like weren’t supposed to do certain things as they were mostly behind the scenes and did ‘minor things’. But then, I met this woman. She preached powerfully, and God’s spirit came down. The fact that she was a woman didn’t make her less agile. After her, I met female deliverance ministers, and the idea of doing it (everything I wanted to do) on a small scale disappeared.”
#sweetlypsycho