When a child lives with unpredictable, terrifying, and relentless abuse, they experience themselves as perpetually powerless. Phrases like “it doesn’t matter” and “forget it” are common. They have learned that what matters to them does not matter to others.
“I swore never to be silent wherever and whenever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” ~Elie Wiesel
Be willing to fail. Be okay with not being perfect. Then, you will be positioned for your greatest success. God doesn’t expect you to perform perfectly, He expects you to trust Him to the best of your ability.
Many times as leaders, we ignore marriages saturated with sin and deceit without truth or care because we value the external appearance of marriage over the holiness of God lived out in hidden places.
I look forward to joining and hearing from these leading voices who give their lives to caring for women, justice and church abuse recovery, trauma care, and advocacy.
I don’t know what you’ve lost, and I don’t know what place you’re in right now, but I know this: God isn’t finished with you yet.
You may not run the exact race you thought you would be running, but God still has a race for you.
Here are God’s words as recorded in Jeremiah 29:11: “I know the plans I have for you… plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
The same God who spoke those words to the Israelites is speaking them to you today.
God has not forgotten the dreams He placed in your heart.
This is the God we are invited to serve: a God who gives dreams and sees those dreams through.
Don't give up.
When God wanted to make David a king, He didn't give him a crown, He gave him a Goliath.
A lot of times when you feel like God's "breaking" you, He's actually BUILDING you for a specific purpose.
I just know there is someone who desperately needs to hear this today.
Human relationships are unable to provide us with life, contentment, happiness, and joy, so when we ask them to be our source of identity, it's only a matter of time before they fail us.
We can never be reminded of this enough: our identity is only safe in one Person - Jesus Christ!
One of the things both research and experience make very clear about those who abuse is that they deceive themselves about their actions and their motives toward the victim and about the impact of their behavior.
The words and tears of an abuser are never sufficient indicators of the reality of what is going on inside their mind and heart. An abusive person loses the capacity to discern truth from lies. They have habituated deceit.
We are not called to protect our institutions, nor do we protect the God of truth by covering up sin and/or a crime. To do so is to “protect” a cancer—and cancer kills. We honor God by caring for the wounded and by dragging sin to the light and calling it by its right name.
I’m hoping you will mark your calendars and save the date to join me for this special one-day conference on Trauma, Truth, & Redeeming Power.
For more information you will find the conference link in the comments or in the Linktree in my profile.
In being honest, the Bible welcomes you to be honest as well. In its refusal to minimize, diminish, or deny the harsh realities of our spiritual address, the Bible calls us to face the facts as well. Things are not okay around us or inside us. The brokenness presses in on every side.
Suffering people often need others to have faith and hope for them. Admonitions to hope or trust often result in despair; if the sufferers were able, they would do so. It is often helpful to say, “I know you struggle to hope right now. I will hope for you.”
We can say we love God, but if we hate another or judge them as “less than,” we are liars. We can say we love God, but if we deem victims of abuse or people of another race or ethnicity as less than, we make it clear that we are liars, and the truth is not in us.