Holding On and Not Giving Up On Self

By Dee Bryant

'Holding On and Not Giving Up On Self' is a special book written to motivate and inspire our youth towards positive change. This book is spiritually based and reflects upon my personal military experience where mental toughness is exemplified through facing challenges, disappointments, making mistakes, losing hope, taking risk and falling back o

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dee Bryant
• Release date: Sep 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9786214790869

Dee Bryant

Dee Bryant is a retired military officer with 21 years of faithful and honorable service. Dee is the author of two book, which also includes, Holding On and Not Giving Up On Self. She is a Motivational Speaker, and Podcast Influencer.

Book preview

DEDICATIONS

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his book is dedicated to my sister Jefonda, who has played a significant role in my growth with the Lord. Sis, your support and encouragement has always been on-time. I’m extremely blessed to have you in my life. I send my love to my husband Gary and to my beautiful daughters Deletris and Mattia. I would like to send out a special thank you to my nephew Domonick and cousin Smooth for their contributions to such a beautiful project that will help to transform lives. I’m equally thankful to my supportive family and friends. I’m incredibly blessed and excited about what the Lord is doing! I will continue to trust, and believe while living my life with expectancy.

PREFACE

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feel honored and privileged to tell you that I have successfully retired after serving 21 years in the United States Army as a signal communications officer. Now that I am retired from the military I can’t help but think the Lord wants me to do more to give back and help others, especially our youth. This is why I have decided to write this book – in hopes of inspiring and motivating our youth in a positive light based upon my own personal experiences while serving in the Army. I must admit I’m not perfect, and I am not professing to be perfect. The exciting news is this: I have lived and experienced life in spite of making mistakes along the way. Making mistakes is a part of living life, but some of those mistakes can change your life for a long time to come. To demonstrate this point, I have added several chapters dedicated to family members who made poor choices as teens and young adults in difficult circumstance but who are now enjoying God’s blessings. We are all living in difficult days, and this is especially true for our young people. Still, I am encouraged by the fact that many of our young people are smart, ambitious, and are filled with potential and hope even in the midst of making bad choices. God is looking for believers who are ready to activate their faith. I can no longer sit idly by and do nothing. It’s time for me to do my part to motivate and inspire our youth in positive change through my personal reflections on mental toughness.

This book, Holding On and Not Giving Up on Self, is my best effort for helping to make a difference. I am living a blessed life today as a result of taking risks, facing challenges, staying grounded in my faith in God, and accepting opportunity and support from others. I have had my fair share of personal challenges. In this book I will share a personal story about intellectual struggle in reading comprehension even after graduating high school with honors. In hindsight, there was so much I missed and didn’t learn during my high school years.

I realized early on that in order for me to achieve success and to live my true destiny, I first had to get grounded in my faith with God; I had to change my attitude; I had to focus; and I had to commit and put forth a serious effort towards becoming the best. I worked hard, and it wasn’t easy getting to a level where I could be competitive against my Army peers. Through the power of prayer and believing in myself, God stirred up my faith. As a result, I developed a drive to do more while striving to be and do better. I had to get out of the safe zone and into the faith zone. In spite of my faults, I eventually came to the realization that I am uniquely and purposefully made. Today I say how I am a child of God, I am blessed, I am loved, I am smart, I am caring, and the list goes on. I now fill my mind with positive thinking. Understanding your purpose, putting action behind your faith, and living life with expectancy is pleasing in God’s eyes. I’m honored to tell you that I have successfully achieved my personal goal of completing faithful and dedicated service in the United States Army. I retired as a commissioned officer with numerous degrees; I work for the United States government; and I am building a strong relationship with God. I did it, and so can you! I hope that my Army stories and the personal stories my family members share with you will resonate through your inner core to produce an unbelievable power of purpose, drive, initiative, and ambition in you to achieve your goals of being the best you can be in whatever you choose to do. I believe the Lord is now allowing me to start living out my true destiny with the birth of this book. I will continue to do what I can, and God will do what I can’t. You will soon see that through the power of prayer and belief in self, all things truly are possible.

CHAPTER ONE:

SURVIVING SCHOOL AND JOINING THE ARMY

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nce upon a time, while growing up in Jacksonville Florida, I was a young, naïve, misinformed teenager with no serious plan following middle or high school. The role of being a young teenager in middle school certainly came with some challenges. The desire to be accepted by my friends, my teachers, and classmates sometimes consumed my thinking. I lived with the peer pressure of skipping school and being a part of the rumor mill. I was also constantly faced with the decision to have sex, or to drink alcohol. I even allowed my anger to explode on a bully while in the sixth grade during gym. I thought of myself as being shy and very insecure, which impacted my abilities to perform in the classroom. When I really think about it, for the most part I wanted the approval of my peers, my teachers, and of course my family members.

Middle School

My transition into sixth grade was exciting and new. Our family had just moved to a new neighborhood across town. Riding bicycles was the most fun thing to do in our household. On a sunny summer day my sister Rosalyn and I decided to ride our ten-speed bicycles in our new neighborhood. There was a long stretch of roadway with very few cars. My sister and I decided to make it a race. She sped off first and I was right behind her. We must have been travelling around 10-15 miles per hour on our bicycles for about two minutes. All of sudden my sister hit the hand-breaks on her bicycle and my front tire hit her rear tire. The next thing I knew I was flying in the air. When I hit the asphalt, my right shoulder and the right side of my face were thoroughly skinned. Although I was pretty banged up with plenty of cuts and bruises, I was lucky not to have sustained any broken bones. My first day to attend a new middle school was two days after the bicycle accident! I recall begging my mom to let me stay home, but she refused. I ended up being introduced to my new middle school classmates with bandages all along the right side of my face. The stares I received as I walked through the school and as I sat in the classroom were totally embarrassing.

My first day in sixth grade was a very unpleasant experience. The school’s admissions leadership were concerned about there being a possible case of child abuse due to my appearance. I was drilled with numerous questions from the school administrators, both alone and with my mom. I really did not understand all the fuss back then. Now that I’m older, I can understand the school’s need to ensure I was protected. My mom had not abused me, and that was communicated and eventually accepted by the school administrators. There were lots of stares and snickers as I passed students in the hallways of school or while changing during a session at the gym.

When I was in the sixth grade I