Don't Give Up

By Marlena Lewis

Growing up on a farm in a small town outside of Selma, Al was the highlight of my life. My appreciation for life and wanting all of its success is what made me work really hard toward my goals. Our plan for our lives are not always God's plan. I am the tenth child out of thirteen kids but I was determined to be more than a number. I joined the military at age 21, later I retired. While serving in the military I was diagnosed with Lyme disease, fibromyalgia and depression. I have been faced with many other battles ever since. I was determined to never give up and press on. Through my faith and trust in God, I have endured. I have always been a fighter and I know now that this battle belongs to the Lord.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marlena Lewis
• Release date: Aug 22, 2016
• ISBN: 9781495810602

Marlena Lewis

Growing up on a farm in a small town outside of Selma, Al was the highlight of my life. My appreciation for life and wanting all of its success is what made me work really hard toward my goals. Our plan for our lives are not always God's plan. I am the tenth child out of thirteen kids but I was determined to be more than a number. I joined the military at age 21, later I retired. While serving in the military I was diagnosed with Lyme disease, fibromyalgia and depression. I have been faced with many other battles ever since. I was determined to never give up and press on. Through my faith and trust in God, I have endured. I have always been a fighter and I know now that this battle belongs to the Lord.The book is a mini testimony about my life and the struggles I have had and continue to on a daily basis. I talk openly and candid about life issues and how hard it is to get past one thing and then you look up and there's something else. Its real talk and real life. I speak on facts and my faith in God. The book is truly encouraging!

Book preview

DON’T GIVE UP

MARLENA LEWIS

Copyright © 2016 Marlena Lewis

All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Early Years

Chapter 2: Adjusting to Military and Family Life

Chapter 3: Diagnosis of Lyme disease and Fibromyalgia

Chapter 4: Depression

Chapter 5: Career Transition Upsets

Chapter 6: Bullying

Chapter 7: Defining Moments

Chapter 8: Final Thoughts

Poem: Still I Rise - by Maya Angelou

Dedication

Foreword

What is my purpose? Why am I here? Why do these things always seem to happen to me, and how am going to get through this? We all have these questions; not just when something bad comes our way, but we think these thoughts daily as we go through all of our life challenges. I mean, at one point in my life I was lost and just did not know who I was. Yeah, I knew my name was Marlena, but who am I, and what is my purpose? If you think that you will get answers to these questions at the moment in time that you ask them, then you are so wrong. As a matter of fact, I am still asking these same questions twenty years later. I can say though, that I have not found all the answers now, but I am much closer now to finding them than I have ever been before.

Maybe it’s just me, but have any of you thought that there was something special about you? Something so rare and unique that didn’t seem to be inside of anyone else you knew? I mean, you could not put your finger on it, but something was was there. You did not know what it was, but deep down inside you, you felt as though you were different from everyone else.

As a matter of fact, you are so different, that you are confused and scared. All of your other family memebers are just great, but you wonder why you do not fit in at times, or why you sometimes feel almost like a stranger.

In this book I will talk openly and candidily about these questions. I discuss feeling like a stranger among my family members, and the struggles I had in life with just trying to fit in, my illnesses, and depression. It has taken over twenty years to finally understand what God