I need to tell you my graduation story:

A number of you may have seen a photo of me in a graduation gown in the recent past. That, friends, was me despising the shame I have carried for the last 15 years!

I signed up for a post graduate diploma in 2009. I began in earnest, determined to add an education hat to my BSc. general undergraduate degree. Honestly, I didn’t know what I wanted to pursue career wise and this option seemed like the most practical one at the time.

At the time, I thought it would take me just a year and a half. What I didn’t do though, was to count the cost. To see the end, then work backwards. So I chose to take the distance learning programme, where I only went to school physically for a few weeks to do lectures, cats and exams. I did my teaching practice in 2012 but didn’t graduate until 12 years later😒

Why?

I met obstacles and interpreted them as closed doors.

I also wanted to do and accomplish too much at once – study, get married, have kids, work in a bank, write and record music, do ministry… Wueeh!

Critically, I never had a true picture of where I was going. And you know what happens to people without vision…

How did I get to the finish line?
God revealed my purpose and gifting to me over time. He moulded a teacher out of me.
That unfinished diploma made me refrain from starting a master’s degree lest I leave it halfway (again!)
I needed to graduate for me to affirm myself that when I fall down, I can get back up again.
I wanted to give my completion back to God in thanksgiving because He who began a good work in me, was faithful to complete it – Phil 1:6

What is your ‘despise the shame’ story? I would love to read it and rejoice with you in the comments!

#despise the shame
#Clothed

Nenoh