God's Got You

Welcome back to Her Story. As always, we have waited until the last minute to release this months story. We can all relate that life sometimes gets in the way of things, so that’s the usual with us. We are so grateful that this month’s lady was able to do her interview so last minute, and she’s been one of my favorites. We had to make it short and sweet due to busy schedules all around, but this lady is a rockstar. I get the privilege to serve with her at church, and it was a joy to hear more about her life. You don’t want to miss any detail of this story, so here we go…

Her name is Portia Robinson

We met Portia right after church, and completed this interview amongst the chaos of everyone leaving. We endured the heat to get this interview completed so everyone could make it to their next stop on time. It truly was a great representation of Portia. She loves the heat, but her sweet spirit made all the sweat worth it. Emily and I wished we could’ve stayed and talk longer, but she gave some gold nuggets for all women that you will want to hold onto. As we always do, I asked Portia to tell us a little about herself and this is what she had to say, “I am an only child from Wisconsin, born and raised. I come from a small family, just my parents and myself, but on a larger scale my mom has a huge family, she has 13 brothers and sisters and then my dad has a smaller family. Anyways, I grew up with me and bunch of my first cousins, we all stayed within a two to four block radius of each other so we all grew up close together. My mom, by today’s standards, was a stay at home mom, but she really wasn’t. She was the first entrepreneur that I knew and had a daycare in our home for 16 years. Even though I was an only child, there was always someone else’s child in my house. It was great. So here I am now, in Birmingham, by myself. My closest family members are about three hours away. I went to the University of Alabama for school… Roll Tide (and of course we had to high five, sorry Auburn fans). That’s what brought me here to Alabama. At the time I was graduating high school, my god brother was getting his PHD and my parents said that I could go to college wherever he decided to teach. He then told me we were going to Alabama and I didn’t really know where Alabama was except that it was in the south. We ended up in Tuscaloosa, and he hated it but I loved it. I’m here now, and I love where I live and how I live my life.”

With Portia not being from Alabama, I asked Portia to tell us what she loves about the south now that she is a southern girl and she mentioned that she loves the heat. We got to talking about how the snow in the north is pretty at first but then when you have to deal with it for so long, you get tired of it. Any of the other northerners feel her on that?! Emily wasn’t quite in agreeance with Portia on loving the heat, but Portia and I were on the same page. We were both just meant to be southern ladies.

As we transitioned into deeper conversation, I asked Portia to describe to us one of the most rewarding things that she has been through. She answered, “One of the most rewarding experiences of my life was my decision to begin my Mary Kay business. I say that because I have experienced immense spiritual and personal growth because of it. Plus, it gives me an opportunity to do what I love and that is to love on and encourage women of all races, ages, sizes, and backgrounds.” And y’all, Portia is so good at this. She is such a sweet, encouraging spirit and you really do need a Portia in you life. As a plug for her, if you need any Mary Kay needs, please let us know and we will get you connected with her. She truly is fantastic.

To counter that question, I asked Portia to describe one of the most challenging experiences of her life, she explained, “To date, the most challenging thing I’ve gone through was my divorce. Of course when you go into marriage you go into it with an idea of what you want your marriage to look like and you don’t go into marriage thinking of divorce. For me, divorce was never an option. I was over 30 when I got married. Of course, as a woman you have those thoughts in your head that you should be at a certain status, “I should be married and starting a family”, and those were things I was hearing from all the people around me. When it happened, I was excited and happy but I learned a lot about what my ideas were not. I learned a lot about myself through the process and it was a tough process. We stayed married for two years. Things ended because we were not on same page, it wasn’t a God centered marriage. When it ended, you go through a lot of emotions. I was angry because I had to start over again and I was embarrassed. Even looking back now, I still get angry sometimes, especially when it’s raining and I’m lugging the groceries in by myself and I think that it wasn’t suppose to be like this. While going through all those emotions, I didn’t tell my family until after 6 months after I left him. I just didn’t want people to know, because in my head, you don’t get divorced. There were a lot of things that I had to clear up because people knew his side of the story but they didn’t know mine. Once I was able to talk to my parents about it, they were able to help me work through it and tell me is was okay. Yes, God hates divorce, but how many times do we sin and God still loves us through it. I had to come to that realization. It took a toll on me emotionally and physically, but I’m finally to a point where I love who I am again. I love where I am in my life.”

With Portia going through all that, I asked her to share some encouragement to any of you ladies who are in a season of singleness or have recently been divorced. She shared, “For a single woman, it’s okay to be single. It’s okay to not know where you want to be in five years. Don’t listen to all the outside influences, and what society thinks and what everyone else around you thinks you should be at this point in your life. Just keep doing you. As long as you stay before the Lord, and do what He wants you to do, everything else does not matter. For someone who has gone through divorce, is going through divorce, or who is in a relationship that is not God centered, it’s okay to walk away from that. It’s okay to listen to God’s voice, and go where He tells you to go. Even if that means that you will be alone or have to start over. It’s okay to fail.”

To end our short conversation, we ended as we do. We asked Portia how she defines beauty and if she finds herself beautiful. She answered, “I define beauty from the inside out. When you look at people in general, the first thing you see is their outward appearance, but for me, when I can see deeper, whether or not they are honest, genuine, or a great spirit, that is how I get to define beauty. Do I think I’m beautiful? I would like to believe that. I would like to believe that when I look at people, they can really see the real me. Even if I’m completely done up on the outside, they see that I’m a complete hot mess on the inside, and it’s okay to be a hot mess. I hope people get the true spirit of Christ through me in what I say or by how I treat people. If people see that, then I think that I’m beautiful.”

As you can see, Portia is beautiful on the inside and out. As I mentioned earlier, we hated to cut this conversation short but Portia had such amazing things to share in her time with us. I truly wish that each and every one of you readers could sit in on these conversations because each women is such a treat to be around, and especially Portia.

Portia, thanks again for allowing us access into your life and being so willing to be a part of Her Story. It was such an honor to sit with you and walk through your story with you.

As always a big thanks to the best friend ever, Emily. Who is so busy but always makes time for Her Story and giving you readers what you want, these amazing pictures.

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