When I was eleven years old, I failed the eleven plus examination at school and my parents decided that they were going to send me away to boarding school instead of letting me attend the local Secondary Modern school. Being sent away really broke my heart as I really loved my mother and father, and I became very home sick.
To make matters worse I arrived at school with my initials J.E.L.C. marked on all my belongings. I was very shy and considerably overweight so can imagine how I felt when the boys started after seeing my initials called me Junior Eleven Luncheon Case! and other derogatory names like Jumbo. I suffered from very low self-esteem. I got called lots of other names by my fellow pupils which made me retreat into myself and I sought my own company whenever possible. I had only just become a Christian and had a great deal to learn about overcoming obstacles and living a victorious Christian life.
I wonder how many of you have been taunted and ridiculed because of your weight. If you have perhaps you might understand just how I felt. To make thing even worse I often got bullied. Every day we had to do sports and my position in races was never challenged, I always came last.
Those of you who know me today may find it hard to believe that I came from such a bad place but I am only sharing this so you can see just how Jesus Christ has radically changed my life from being like a room were the only pictures developed were negatives to being a room full of positives.
Could it be that even back then my ministry was in peril? Did Satan know what I would eventually become, and he tried his best to destroy me even when I was a child? As I reflect on the life of Jesus, I seem to remember just how difficult His early years were but praise the Lord, God is more powerful and Jesus became the Saviour of the world.
