We have all experience difficulty in our lives and many of us are dealing with difficulty today. We have a choice. Do we want to dwell on the difficulties of the past? Do we want to live in the hurt and roundedness? Is that truly who we are? Do we want to learn from all of the times we were hurt, rejected, unloved, betrayed, whatever? Or do we want to keep carrying all of that heavy baggage?
I have been a victim. I have lived as a victim. A victim of abuse, rejection, betrayal and feeling unloved. It was only when I chose to step out of myself did I decide that I was no longer going to be a victim. I was tired of carrying all that hurt and the people with it on my shoulders. It was time to put it all down. I sought help to do this. I sought help from a professional counselor. I sought help from close friends. And most of all, I sought help from my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Through all of this I have slowly, but surely taken many of those heavy bags I was carrying and set them down. There are still some I work on continuously and these are getting lighter and lighter. Thanks to The Lord, I have been able to choose to forgive others and myself. I have been able to choose to love myself and to learn to love others too. I have been able to choose to let down the walls I had so expertly constructed and become more vulnerable. YES, it does open you to more hurt, but it also opens you to more love. And once you have done the work, the hurts come less often and the love more so.
Does forgiveness happened overnight? It can, but most often it's a process over time that is worked over and over again. The most effective way I have found to forgive is to pray for the person that hurt you. It's hard to hate someone for whom you are praying. Reminding myself that God loves that person just as much as He does me also helps. Trying to understand that the other person is wounded also and has probably acted out of that woundedness allows me to see them in a different light. Most bad behavior on anyone's part is born out of fear; the same fears all of us have.
Another choice I have made is to think bigger; to get outside of my box or comfort zone. What is the purpose for which The Lord has created me? How do I discover, discern this? First, I pray. Then, I listen for His voice. Once I hear His voice, I am able to make sure it is His voice by the amount of peace I feel. I know that I am in His will if I am at peace about it and not still questioning. I have an assuredness that I know can only come from Him.
Through this process and so much more choices made every day, I have gone from being a victim and living like a victim to feeling victorious. Victorious by the Grace of God in overcoming much of my woundedness. Victorious in learning how to be fearless in stepping out in faith that I can do all things with Christ by my side.
Do I have setbacks? Absolutely! But all I have to do is go back to The Lord and He gets me back on track more quickly each time.
This blog is part of that stepping out and exploring my writing abilities and how those might inspire others. The journey with The Lord is an adventure for sure, but He will lead you to Victory!
Bye-Bye Baggage!!! Hello Victory and Freedom!!!
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