HOME| MUSIC REVIEWS | CONCERT CONNECTION |
ANNOUNCEMENTS |
SUBSCRIBE | DEVOTIONAL
| JMA CONSULTING
 Name: Gladys Berrios
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
Skillz: I am singer/writer
Motto: Always be who you are
Must see movie: RENT, Passion of Christ
Favorite Song: Lessons Learned from Alicia Keys
Favorite Meal: Spanish food and Italian Food are my favorite
Influences: My influences in life are women who have overcame abusive
relationship as well as being a single parent. My mother for all she had to
endure. Vocally my influence is Alicia Keys.
Favorite Scripture: Isaiah 57:15-19
What does Christ's resurrection mean to you? Gods perfect love for me and
for everyone. I mean who in the world would step up like that and sacrifice
himself for something someone else has done! There's no greater/perfect love
anyone can demonstrate other than what he has done. It also means my
salvation.
Your ministry: I don't have any other ministry than this. I hope one day to start mentoring.
Glady's Story:
Well I'm going to start by saying that God is good and I wouldn't be where I am today if not for Him. He picked me up when I was most hurt, destroyed, picked on, and used. When I found myself useless and not worthy of anything he came and told me I am like a diamond that was tossed and unseen but now valued by the most high. He told me and continues to tell me that I’m not forgotten no matter how hard the situations gets. I'm not going to act like life is perfect because there's no such thing as perfect other than Him.
Even as a Christian I go through day-to-day battles especially when it deals with past situations.
I still fall short of the glory but through his grace I am still standing here to give you this testimony. There are times now I still deal with the issue of low self esteem, insecurities, looking for the approval of a father figure, as well as feeling like I’m not a part of this world. Once I was told as a child that I was worthless and that I couldn’t do anything right as well as we weren't wanted by the one whom you've always tried to make love you regardless of your defects. You see, growing up I had both parents unlike what you see now days. The only issue is I was basically raised as if I had no parents. Our love was bought instead of planted and when we needed someone to talk to they weren’t around.
So I basically grew up not knowing how to value life or value myself as a woman. I was called incompetent for not knowing how to play with a toy right. I was raised getting hit by my father for the simplest thing as not wanting to play 'doctor' with my cousin and brother, from scratching my glasses to giggling with my sisters softly at night.
I remember we use to run to my mother holding on to her tightly as he came behind swinging his belt at us while we were still in her arms. I was stripped from my innocence as well. Being touched and fondled as a child only brought curiosity to why things feel the way they do. Till this day my parents don't know what went happened and I guess I will keep it that way. Curiosity in a child not being spoken to only did more damage. I felt a lot was wrong with me and I was not part of this world. I felt strange and an outcast, like if I spoke to anyone about anything I would be looked on as strange or being stupid. I was only 7 and I had all these issues building up inside of me without realizing it would affect me later on as a woman. Growing up and not knowing anything was crazy and not easy.
Don’t think I have hatred towards my parents, because I don’t. I love my parents dearly. Like I said we are not perfect and they did all they could do as parents. They didn't know any better than I did being a parent myself. I mean they tried their best according to how they were raised. I do thank them for giving me the best gift a parent could ever give a child and that was planting that seed to fear God.
One of the best memories I had was remembering the first time I ever felt a mother daughter bond. It happened when my heart was broken by the guy who I gave up my all too. My mother found out that he left me and I was hurt badly and all I can remember was that she just hugged me with pain and tears in her eyes.
By 16 they ended splitting up and it was hard for me to see that happened just because I looked at them and always thought “this is life and it’s how I should live". I remember I was supposed to have my sweet sixteen party on my birthday but because of all the issues going on I didn't have it till April. I honestly didn't think things were bad, I just thought they were arguing. Until my party was postpone and I remember staying at my aunts' house. It was at that point in my life that everything changed from being ok to crazy. I started using drugs, drinking, cutting school, sleeping around looking for that acceptance from a man that I longed to receive from my father, and I completely stopped going to church.
In a matter of less than a year we moved around more than 6 times. Until my Aunt Mena (may she R.I.P) moved all 5 of us with her and her 4 kids in a 2 bedroom apartment. By then partying and hanging out was my life in just 1 year. We ended moving out because our lives were in danger when my brother was almost killed and a real close friend of ours (R.I.P) died due to drugs.
So we moved once again! My parents ended up living together by this time, I guess for financial reasons but by then I became pregnant. I was only 17 years old and I was going to be a mother!
By this point in my life I think I stooped to my lowest. I was abuse physically and mentally by this guy just because I wanted to keep my son. I never finished school and I was running behind a guy who didn't know any better himself.
I did stupid things like hit myself while pregnant, thinking maybe this is what would make him happy and make him stay with me. By the time I was 18 I became pregnant again and lost that baby due to abuse.
I eventually moved in with this guy and ended up becoming pregnant with my daughter by 19. Again he wanted me to abort her and I refused. I remember one night he went crazy and just held me against my will. He threatened to kill us all, me, my unborn daughter, my son who wasn’t even 2 years old, and then himself. I remember he had let me go but I felt bad when I overheard him say that he was going to kill himself, so I ended up staying so nothing bad would happen.
I remember putting the playpen in front of me, my son behind me, and every sharp thing besides me. I swore that night if he touched me I was going to kill him. I have to say that it was God that night that set me free because I don’t even recall how I made it through. Eventually I did leave him but again I didn't learn my lesson. I was always told that if God came I would stay behind because I was living in fornication so I married him. What was that fort? because I left him for good after that .God did what he had to do but I was left with emotional scars, hate, anger and not being able to trust anyone. I was confused in life as to where I was meant to be and what I was supposed to do.
I started looking for something to complete me and I didn’t know where to get it so I went running behind men again. Curiosity hit so hard in life that I became intimate not only with men but a woman as well. Life was just a mess so I moved away thinking I can change my life. Guess what it didn’t, same lifestyle same story. I eventually moved back to Brooklyn with my mother and sisters’ hoping for some change and I through my sisters’ I started to visit a church.
Things went sour as well because I was hurt by people in church too. I was denied to sing, maybe because I was a single mother not divorced, who knows. I was used again by a man in church too and that just did it for me so I left that church too.
I was broken down bad until the day I met this wonderful man that now is my husband of 4yrs. It was God who placed this man in my life to show me he still loves me. No matter how used up I was and how low I had stooped he transforms and renews and that’s exactly what he did to me. He renewed me and made me whole again. I’m doing what he promised me years ago I would be doing and that’s ministering through singing and sharing my testimony.
When I look back at all I've been through all I can do is thank God. I could have been dead by the hands of an abuser or dying of a sickness. But he chose to have me live and be where I am today. I know that everything I went through was to better me and help others in similar situations. Remember: To everything, everyone there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven Eccl 3:1 (KJV).
|
