Story Telling

I was given a binder from a very dear friend that contained personal encounters from a women's retreat she had been to back in 2008. She has been asking me to read her testimony written in it & finally I stole a moment away to do it. Even though I know that story, I had heard it before, I felt so broken for her. I felt burdened with this overwhelming sadness that she believed, as an innocent child (then) writing this that she was a product of all these terrible things that had happened to her. You'd never know by looking at her all the crap she has been through. I wept as I felt the pain behind the sincerity of her words. As I thought back to details she had shared with me in person and how I've seen these happenings play as factors in her life since, I wanted to hold her and tell her how beautiful she was and how nobody would hurt her again if she would surrender it to the only perfect Father. I wanted to tell her everything would be made good but that wasn't true. I couldn't really promise that she would never face hard trials again in this life. I couldn't promise anything except that she was far more than things she had gone through. She was a daughter of the King and He tells us how loved we are & how not all our lessons will be gently taught but not to get caught up in what tomorrow will bring of them. I wished that the good would overcome the bad in her story, not the other way around, but it does, you just have to step back to see the bigger picture of it all.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:34

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, 

"plans to prosper you and not to harm you. 

Plans to give you a hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11

I, too, have lived to endure many heartaches, much abandonment, had my trust broken time and time again, been walked out on, faced betrayal. I have a story that is unlike anyone else's for a reason. People would never know intimate details of it except that I want to share it, I want people to know they aren't alone in the bad & I want to be a small, humble reminder that things will get better. But where I've been, what I've lived to survive, it's not who I am. The bad things that happen to us don't define us.

Beauty lies, we can look like we have it all together & smile like everything has always been neatly kept or we can face the truth, accept the identity Christ gives us, seek it out in His word & share our stories.

Tell the tragic parts and then tell the wonderful ways the Lord has healed you and made you new. Tell the story of how the generation curse of abuse or abandonment or hurt was broken through you. Tell of endurance. Tell the truth without fear of judgement, without hesitance. Be vulnerable to be a vessel for our King. Let God be the Hero in your story, because through Him, all that bad junk that you've been through...it gets put to rest. God wins & He gives your story joy and hope for an eternal future of true beauty. Don't miss it by focusing on all the terrible things that nobody should be forced to overcome, rather see the light & hold onto that.