Finding a Father
On her way to school one morning Akim paused to catch her reflection in a window. Her uniform was dusty and had become wrinkled from heavy use.
As she straightened her coat her eyes moved up. She examined her face. The carefree look you would hope to see on the face of a 13-year-old was noticeably absent as she muttered to herself, “Not pretty enough.”
Her whole life Akim had been told lies about who she was. So it was easy to understand how she had developed this view of herself though—even if it was untrue.
Akim never met her father. She had never even seen a picture of him. He died when she was young, and her grandma was the only parent she had ever known. This had left her feeling like she was unwanted and undeserving of love.
She brushed a tear from her face and kept walking.
She was on her way to something her friend called a Spark Event. Tonight’s lesson was part of a 12-lesson series ShareWord Global partners run to teach young people the truth of the gospel.
The whole event made her nervous. She didn’t want to learn about God. She didn’t want to know why He had made her this way.
But she went anyway.
At the event she was surrounded by kids her age and as she listened to the words the teachers were saying, something special happened.
Akim smiled.
“They taught us that God made you, I was very afraid of that because when I look at my mirror I used to think, I am not beautiful,” Akim said with that same smile spread across her face.
“I learned about the Spark magazine, and it changed my life. They told me in the beginning, God created heaven...and He created human beings in His own image. That made me very happy. It makes me feel so beautiful and proud of myself. I believe that God is in me!”
Now, Akim knows that her true value doesn’t come from her looks, or even what other people think of her. Her value only comes from what her Father in Heaven thinks of her.
