HEALING OF PAINS FROM THE PAST

No matter how long ago it happened, you have to yield yourself to God's way in order to heal a trauma. A year after my husband left me and the family, I decided to ask God for healing. This was my own idea. No one encouraged me to go there. I was broken inside but alive in God. I was open to healing if that was something I needed. I didn't know what to expect but I trusted God to do what only he could do.

Teacher picture in those days.

God took me at my word. A few days later memories began to surface, usually after an intense time in the word and in prayer. I only prayed the prayer once, but I guess that's all God was waiting for me to do. I was seeking intimacy in my relationship with God. I had been pursuing God with no holds barred. My life was changing as a result of my new found openness with God. God helped me heal and returned peace to my soul.

Here is a segment written in my first journal from during that time of upheaval and renewal.

JOURNAL 1 -- 2003 

Most days I walk in the orchard for exercise and as a time of renewal. This morning, while in the orchard I talked with God about the spiritual desire I have to walk through the pains of the past, to give them to Him, to let go of them, to have them change from a wound to a scar. 

I cannot do this on my own. I don’t even know how to allow Him to lift and free me from their power, to release them.  I asked for His help in doing this. 

To begin this process of walking through the pains of the past and remembering their hurt and then offering them to God; I went back to the beginning. I began to remember those first few weeks of marriage when I realized that my husband and I were not going to have the close marriage fellowship I had envisioned, how I had felt the lack of bonding together--and the aloneness I felt.  

I remembered how at the time I realized that my marriage was probably a big mistake, and how I regretted my choice.  I also remembered my determination to put my marriage in God’s hands.  For 21 years that was the way it had been.

I allowed myself to feel, to remember that terrible day, when my first born was a baby, when my husband told me he was leaving because it just wasn’t working out, how he didn’t love me or have feelings for me, how he had not really wanted to marry me, the doubts he had before we wed.   

The pain of these memories was so intense that I wept so hard my heart just hurt.  I asked God to release me from their pain.  I felt exhausted, depleted of all energy.  After the tears subsided the beauty of the trees and creation spoke to me.  As I stood there the memory of the biblical character Job--and his intense suffering and faithfulness--touched me.   

I want to listen for His communion when I finish this."

By giving my hurts to God, I was able to access his healing grace. The sorrow and suffering left my inner being and never returned. A redemptive touch of God met my need and healed me. My wounds became a trophy of God's tender touch making me anew.

Life is tremendously different ever since that day. God set me free and began to shape me. I am grateful. 

My full story can be found here in two audio segments of pain and healing. May God minister to your heart through them. 

Please share my testimony with someone God puts on your heart.

Blessings, my friend. 

I welcome any comments.  

SHOW KIDS YOU CARE

Notice the children and give them an appropriate sense of self.

Children need tender loving care. They also need affirmation. All the adults in their lives put into their lives and are giving them a sense of self. Your words and actions matter a great deal and leave lasting imprints that project into the future. Positive words and actions are empowering.

Children need parameters and established boundaries. It is important to teach youth that some things are good and some are not okay. Model appropriate behaviors for them and plan ways to create a safe environment in your home. Make sure you commend children for right behaviors. All children need to be cared for and nurtured. Chaos happens when the environment is out of control. With a little thought, this can be improved and provide what the children need.

Teachers, parents, grandparents, coaches, youth leaders, ministers and others will communicate messages to their youthful charges. They are helping build a whole person one word at a time. Wrong messages often stem from frustration, lack or organization, and lack of consistency.

Focus on helping children grow into responsible adults by helping them participate. People need structure to build upon to hold it together like a body needs its skeletal system to support the body. By paying attention to structure and nurture causes a child to feel wanted in their environment.

Parents teach their children about strangers to keep them aware and safe. Be careful in how you interact with children. Be a safe person. Do make the effort to acknowledge children. Do the extras if they are in your care.

 Here are a few simple ways you can show any child that you care.

Notice them. 

Smile a lot.

Acknowledge them.

Learn their names.

Seek them out.

Remember their birthdays.

Children are like sponges. They soak up the attention and guidance you give them. They need it.

Children will listen after they have learned to listen. We, as adults, learn to speak with quiet authority and to not overdo it. They respond to care, and they respond to being treated with respect. Lack of respect towards them results in them reacting, acting out, or defending themselves. Respectful behavior is taught, modeled, given, and should be the expectation for everyone in the family.

Much has been written about raising children. I think one area has been neglected. Parents are in control, not the children. You are in charge. Don't give the children all the power to make all the choices. They are not ready for it and will become what we used to call "spoiled" or "brats" when they control the home. They will have more voice as they mature and show responsibility.

There are ways to do this. You might want to read about this subject.on my other blog: Intentional Parenting: 21 Tips for How to Parent Children.

Be in control but don't be harsh. Use appropriate consequences. Love well. Be kind. Take time.

ARE YOU WHOLE?

To embrace wholeness requires that one be whole. To be whole in our humanness is to be well and have health in physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social, and intellectual areas. 

To ignore fitness in any area will affect all areas of self. You want to be well? Then you have to do the things that make you well. 

This isn’t about addictions or psychological health, but it is important to know that if something, someone, or some substance is in control of you, has control over you, is what you live for—when you can’t get along without it—then you are not whole. 

Emotional health, your mental health, is an area to consider and then uncover any ties to negatives both past and present. The goal is to use these as teachers that propel you into understanding and release you to be free of their entanglements and influence in your life. 

Are you whole? 

It takes some work but you can be whole. Getting well in body, soul, and spirit, and in your emotions, intellect, and will, is the stuff of real life. Lots of times you probably don't think you're doing okay, and maybe you aren't.

That's where you come to a roadblock in your life and take an intense look at yourself. This is a good thing. Start identifying what you know to be true about your interactions and your relationships, and your attitudes, and, lastly, your positive and negative self-stuff.
I have faced a few roadblocks that made me look intently at myself. Some of the ways I was thinking were not good for me or for others. I took stock. Saw where I needed to change. Prayed about it. Read books that related in some way. Then I started working on myself, and it worked.
You can do it. 

You can make your life better if you want to.  Everyone is given an opportunity to deal with their stuff. Sometimes it takes some help and guidance. But you can get there. Spiritual help is rich, too. God will listen, and he will help you. No demands, though. You can partner up, God does his part in guiding you, and you do your part in showing up and doing the what you need to do.
There is a lot more to this than I am stating, but I just want you to know that it is possible. It takes some hard work too. But that's good in the end. Then what you learn, and any change, become a part of you. Trust me, I've been there.

Blessings to you.

Let me know if I can help in any way. 💁

GOD is in the PEOPLE CHANGING BUSINESS

Get Ready for a Spiritual Makeover

  A spiritual makeover changes you from the inside out. 

A spiritual makeover is quite the adventure. God touches you where you've have been wounded by thoughtless words or unkind actions. He also shows you when you've been wrong-minded and acted in self-interest. God takes you on a journey through your past and into your present.

So why should you care?

What God offers you are two R's, and they're life-changing R's. God offers you redemption and relationship. You can't have one without the other. You get a new life as he redeems your soul and forgives what needs forgiving and gives you a new life in Christ. This new life begins a spiritual journey with God guiding your life as you follow the path of divine love. 

It's not easy, but it's good because God is good.

God never abandons you. He is a good father, a loving Father. My son struggled with depression. He'd been hurt and life was disappointing and had too many problems. I couldn't reach him. I worried and prayed. He moved far away. Then God started a work in him that grew and grew. When I saw him next, his face no longer was sad and hang-dog. There was life in his eyes and joy in his expression. He looked much different, better, free. No way could he have done that on his own.

God wants you to clean up your act, spiritually speaking.

God wants to set you free. He is here to help you. But you have to give him your stuff. That's the hard part. God will make you anew if you let him. That's the tricky part. It's better to not play games with God. Be honest with him. Once you get started then the miracles start happening. The divine life is a presence, God's presence in you, a beauty that lives within that lights the eyes with life, peace, and inner radiance that spills forth in splashes of joy and inner delight.

Does it matter?   

Yes, your spiritual side is always with you. God desires to nurture your inward places that he might lead you by the still waters. There you will feel safe, loved, and whole. God helps you heal. Spiritual renewal is intentional. Your intrinsic need to be loved and wanted is found in God. God can meet this deepest longing in every human heart. 

First, though, you have to find God as real.

A life of peace is something you may want and hope to have, yet it can seem out of reach. Peace is acquired through God. All of us need some help from God to deal with our personal stuff.  Life has many challenges that are difficult to address or to effect change. If you want to live in freedom, the first step is to look in the mirror of God. It starts there. Ask God to reveal what is in your heart to you. Be brave.

God is in the business of making us beautiful.  

Want to know about the best relationship out there? It is God + his child. God and his children are a team by way of his redemptive work in them. With God’s help, you can return to spiritual health: restored, purified, and healed. God does his best work in a life that’s changed by him. You can be that life.


God is love in its purest form.

• God’s  ♡  speaks in the stillness. 

• God's  ♡  offers grace to his beloved children. 

• God’s   ♡  redeems and sets free. 

• God’s  ♡   is beautiful, real, and fulfilling. 

• God’s  ♡  is unselfish, life-giving, and life-changing.

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AMEN

I invite you to subscribe to this blog. Blessings & joy. Norma