Hey girls, Tiffany Dawn here, and today we're gonna talk about how to share your
testimony. One of you girls actually wrote in this question a few days ago
and you were about to share your testimony for the first time I think
that night which is so cool, and so it got me thinking, you know, I bet this is a
question that a lot of girls have. I know I did. So I just want to share some of my
own thoughts and experiences on this. I have six tips for you that are things
that have just helped me personally in figuring out how to share my testimony.
And really like testimony in my mind is just a fancy word for like your story,
the story God has given you of how He has been at work in your life; what
you've learned about God and yourself and how your life has changed because of
it. And so it's all about like giving God glory for what He's done, encouraging
other people around you, and showing a small piece of who God is to the people
around you. Before we get started though let me just share two verses with you.
When I think of a testimony, here's what I think of: 1 John 1:1: "That
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at
and our hands have touched, this we proclaim." So I think a testimony is all
about what you have seen God do in your life, what you personally have
experienced, you're sharing that story. And then the other verse I think of is
Revelation 12:10-11, which says, "For the accuser of our brothers and
sisters who accuses them before our God day and night has been hurled down. They
have triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their
testimony." So I think that's cool that in a sense we can triumph over our accuser
who's like, "You don't really know God, you're not really a Christian," or
accusing us of all these different things, we can have that triumph by the
word of our testimony too - like our testimonies can be a reminder to us and
to others that God is our God and that our past sins and mistakes and struggles
do not define us and that He has rescued us and that we really are His no matter
what we've been through.
So I remember one of the first times I shared my testimony I was asked to share
on a missions trip when I was 15 and I remember just thinking like, "What
testimony?" Like I was home-schooled, my dad was a kid's pastor, like I don't know
what to share! Should I go out and do drugs tonight so I have something to
share tomorrow? And I just I thought that a testimony had to be about something
terrible that happened and how you overcame it. And that's not necessarily
true. Really it's just like a theme that kind of describes your life and brings
glory to God and shows how He has been at work in your life. And so that could
be through like something terrible that happened, a really hard time, a really
sad time, a time and you walked away from God, or it could just be a time when you
like learned more about who God is or how much He loves you or when like
your faith became real to you, became your own. It could be anything. And as you go
throughout life, I think your testimony changes, because as God continues working
in our lives and as we continue going through stuff in our lives, our testimony
will continue to change and grow and morph. And so you can't really in like
a very short amount of time go through your entire life step by step, and like,
"This happened this day and this happened this day"; you have to find like moments
to highlight that can make this overarching arc of your narrative. So tip
number one is kind of look for that narrative. Like what theme do you want to
pinpoint? What is one of the big themes of your life? So for me one of the things
that I often talk about is my struggle with feeling like I had to be good
enough to be loved. And so going from like growing up trying to be perfect
with my grades and everything, then getting to college, being obsessed with
what I looked like and with having a boyfriend; never feeling like I was good
enough to be worthy of love. And then realizing in my 20s through a series of
different events that God loved me just as I was, not cause I'd earned it, not because
I was good enough, but just because He chose to love me. And just the pressure
that that took off of me to know that I could live in His love. And so that's
kind of one of the big themes of my life thus far.
Step two, I chose a few stories to illustrate that theme. So I kind of chose
like before, during, and after stories. So like here's what it was what it was like
at the beginning, when I was struggling with this not
being good enough, or here's what I was like before that moment when I realized
who God was, or here's what happened before that really hard time, here's what
my life was like. And then the during part, here's what I was like when I was
really struggling with this, when I just never felt like I was good enough, here's
a story to illustrate that. And so I often choose like one or two super short
stories that just kind of show like, here's what it was like at the worst of
it, and then what God did. I'll think back over my life and be like, "Okay I
think like this story kind of illustrates the what God did part of it."
And then I should tell a little bit about what my life became like
afterwards. And so testimonies you know are typically when you share them
like short and sweet, which is kind of odd because our testimonies could take days
to share, but if you are supposed to share yours in like a 5 minute 10 minute
segment, then just kind of, you might want to practice ahead of time to be able to
really tell the story, get the key parts and tell it concisely, quickly,
efficiently. That way you can kind of like hit the main points and move on
without leaving in a whole bunch of like extra details, because that'll make
it take longer. But if you're not worried about a time frame, then who cares! So tip
number 3 is focus in your testimony on what God has done and how He changed
your life. So the purpose of a testimony is to like bring glory to God and
encourage other people and show people like part of who God is. So when you're
telling your story, kind of focus on that. I think it's easy to spend like the
whole testimony focusing on the struggle, and it is important to really give
people a sense of the struggle you were in because people really connect with that,
um but also like make sure you really do focus on what God did and what you
learned about Him. So that's a way of like giving Him glory in your story. And
then tip number 4 is you don't have to like focus too much on the nitty gritty
details of any like sin or struggle that you went through. I think it can be
tempting to like tell every detail just so people get how like hard that time
was, but that's not really necessary. People don't - especially people who
aren't close to you - don't need to know every detail. It's part of like having
healthy boundaries as a person, realizing that not everyone needs to know
everything. And so what I kind of do is share like the
generalities of what I was struggling with and some specific stories, but I don't
tell like every little detail. Like when I talk about my eating disorder, I don't
share what I weighed, I don't share what size my pants were, I don't share what
exactly I ate every day. I just don't think that those things are helpful. They
can lead more to comparison like, "Oh her eating disorder with worse than mine," or
"My disorder was worse than hers," or whatever. And I just don't I don't think
it's helpful. I don't think it adds to the story and it kind of puts too much
emphasis on the nitty gritty details that not everyone needs to know. So kind
of think about like what you do want to share and what you don't want to share and
make sure that you do have those healthy boundaries. Boundaries are good to
have. There's nothing wrong with saying, "Not everyone needs to know this part of my
life." That's okay. Which reminds me of tip number five is you don't have to share
things you're currently working through. You can if you want to, but again figure
out what healthy boundaries look like for you. So for me personally, I don't
usually share things that I'm currently struggling with unless if it's something
that God has been bringing some resolution to, some healing to, that I
feel ready to share. Or if it's a past struggle, I'm fine sharing that with
anyone. But my current, deep struggles, I don't get into detail with, don't really
talk a whole lot about, except with my closest friends and family and
counselor, because to me that's a healthy boundary. I don't want to have a whole
bunch of voices speaking into this struggle and telling me all these
different things, when I'm trying to work through it. I just want to keep that more
private. And I think that that's healthy and that's okay as long as you have some
people that you trust that you're being honest with. So you don't have to share
everything. Maybe your testimony is what you've already been through as opposed
to what you're currently going through - unless it's on your heart to really
talk about what you're currently going through, which is fine. And then tip
number six is just trust that God is going to do what He wants to do with
this. That is the coolest thing about sharing our story is that all we're
responsible to do is share the story and God does all the rest. And that's
something that God started showing me a lot when I was on like my speaking tours.
I would get so nervous and feel like, "I gotta like speak the right way, I gotta
like say the right thing, that way people get it and like they experience God's
love." And I felt like God just showed me like, "Tiff, you're not the one who's doing
all of that. All you're responsible to do is share the story I have given you to
share - and that's it. Everything else I'm taking care of." And that just took so much
pressure off, just to know like in all my mistakes, all the times I said the wrong
thing or all the times I felt like I didn't explain things well or didn't
connect well with people, God was at work. And I know after I'd speak at events
people would come up and say, "God really spoke this to me," and I was thinking like,
"Where did you get that from? I didn't really even talk about that in my story!"
But that's just God at work in people's hearts. It's like I just share my story and
He does these crazy things that I just could never do. So just trust Him that as
you share your story, He'll use that. So girls I hope that this can encourage you.
As always, share your thoughts below: What helps you with sharing a testimony? And
if you have just shared your testimony for the first time or are going to, let
us know in the comments because we'd love to like celebrate with you! So I
love you girls and I'll see you Friday. Bye!