Nature vs. Nurture
Does the path of our life rely more on the genes passed on by our parents or the environment in which we were raised? Some would argue for the former, others may disagree. Regardless of our DNA or our environment, the Lord is always present, watching over us in times of trouble.
Christina (front, middle) and other Residents and Servant Leaders at our graduation ceremony in September.
Christina was born addicted to drugs. Her mother used multiple substances and as a result Christina was born three months early addicted to heroin, alongside her stillborn twin. Her mother also struggled with mental health and had a history of prostitution. The first ten years of Christina’s life, she was surrounded by pain and suffering in a poor neighborhood in Tennessee. “I don’t really remember going to school, but I must have gone once in a while.” With school a low priority and food scarce, she admits that she was “underdeveloped in every way.”
As an occasional reprieve, Christina and her two sisters would spend a few days with their grandmother. Well fed, clean, and with laundered clothes, she and her sisters would have brief glimpses of safety and comfort.
Over the years, her home life grew worse. Men frequented the house and food became more and more scarce. Christina was underdeveloped socially, physically, and spiritually. At the age of ten, she was adopted by a local Christian couple. A few years after her adoption, her biological mother died and soon Christina and her adoptive family moved to Maine.
Given her inconsistent upbringing and exposure to unhealthy lifestyles, Christina arrived in Maine as an extremely impressionable teenager. She found she got along well with another girl her age who had also been adopted and they began to get into trouble together.
“I was half dead, crawling through a nightmare that I called life.”
Christina showing off her trophy at a fun summer event for Residents.
As an introvert, Christina admired her friend’s outgoing personality. Together they engaged in a variety of bad habits —drugs, eating disorders, and inappropriate relationships with men. Eventually, her adoptive parents put her in multiple 30-day programs to try to help her. But Christina knew exactly what to say and when to say it. She told the staff what they needed to hear in order to be released. For several years, she indulged in drug abuse and her eating disorder, resorting to prostitution to help pay for them.
When Christina found she could no longer support herself or her habits financially, she went to her parents for help. Her parents agreed to help their daughter under one condition—she needed to apply to His Mansion.
Once again, Christina did whatever it took to get what she wanted. However, she didn’t expect an almost immediate response from the staff at His Mansion. She went through the application process and was soon accepted. With no money, no car, and a fistful of life disrupting habits; she prepared to spend the next year of her life with “Bible- thumpers” and have plenty of “Jesus talk.”
Christina visiting with her family during her time in the Residential Program.
However, what Christina found instead were people with whom she experienced family and community for the first time. “I learned to love them immediately.” Christina soon discovered the lies she believed about God built a barrier between her and her Creator. She believed God loved everyone except her. “I couldn’t understand how He could still want me.” Reading the Bible daily, Christina allowed the words of scripture to work in her life.
During her time at His Mansion, Christina slowly learned the love of Christ and invited Him into her heart. With the grace of God in her newfound community, Christina understood that she couldn’t blame anyone else for her actions. She could have easily used her mom and poor upbringing as excuses for her choices. Instead, Christina brought her pain, her past, and her predicament to Christ asking for forgiveness and to guide her on toward redemption.
Finally, she found a way to overcome the guilt and shame of her past and the death of her mom that had fed her depression for so long. By looking forward with the presence of her Creator, she was able to learn from her past instead of letting it dictate her future.
Graduating from His Mansion in October of 2020, she went home with the reassurance that “He is going to be there with me.” Christina has plans for the first time in her life. She is working in a telecommunications job to
support herself and pay for college. Most importantly, she knows that wherever she goes and whatever she does, Christ is there and has given her a sense of purpose.