Many women struggle with the voice in their head that tells them they are not enough…not smart enough, not pretty enough, not capable enough, not present enough.
Denisse Copeland is one of the many women to feel that way. She was raised by a single mother in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. Her upbringing offered little stability, and Denisse soon found herself on a seemingly endless quest to find love and acceptance.
When Copeland was 16 years old, her father took full custody of her. She moved from Puerto Rico to Florida and for Copeland, that was a difficult change.
"I faced a lot of barriers. I had to learn to speak English. My father was married and had two children and my mother never really reached out after my dad took custody, so I felt abandoned," says Copeland.
When she graduated from high school, Denisse went straight into the workforce. From there she started partying and hanging out with the wrong crowd, jumping from relationship to relationship, as that was all she knew.
Denisse soon found herself looking for love and acceptance in all the wrong places. It wasn't until Jesus shook her world that she truly found what she was looking for.
"God was using different people in my life to really draw me back to him, but I really didn't know it at the time," Denisse explains.
One night while driving home from her ex's house, she felt overwhelmed and started crying out to God, confessing and repenting. She says that was the first time that she ever felt peace. The first time that she ever felt like she was enough.
Denisse has now taken her experience and is sharing it in her new book, Set Apart: How to Stop Comparing, Own Your Giftedness, and Rest in Jesus.
She uses the biblical story of Mary and Martha to share her own story of recognizing her unique giftedness and unpacks how women can embrace their identity in Christ.
Today on Connections, Denisse shares her story and how she managed to stop comparing, own her giftedness and rest in Jesus.