I pray in this moment you are embracing this fact:
GOD LOVES YOU SO MUCH.
He is smiling down on you, pleased with you, regardless what you might have done or said even in the last breath. He loves you and you can’t run from that love.
This Christmas know that no matter where you are, with family you adore, with family you tolerate (;)) or with friends…even alone…know that GOD IS WITH YOU and He delights in you so much He sent reminds us of His greatest GIFT each and every year on this day.
Many years in my early journey of healing were spent denying God’s love. I listened to the lies in my head that I was not good enough, could never be the person He created me to be, or His ‘love’ was never meant for me to receive.
Time was wasted in listening to these lies. Precious blessings were turned away due to lies. NO MORE.
Give yourself a GIFT and say ‘NO’ to the lies that keep you from His love.
2016 is the Jubilee Year of Mercy and I pray to focus my blog from 2015’s year of Healing to 2016’s year of Mercy. What is it in my life? How can I receive it? How do I offer it to others? I pray you join me on this journey!
And as an added bonus I’ve decided to release my book REDEEMED chapter by chapter for FREE here on the blog in 2016. REDEEMED is the follow up memoir to EXPOSED. Here is a small sample:
PROLOGUE TO REDEEMED
I shared my secrets in a Hello Kitty journal. Tormented at the tender age of eleven, I wrote my first poem to express a truth I wouldn’t be able to grasp for decades to come.
Living in a world unknown,
I’m scared to think it could be shown.
In this world I hear voices
Telling me to make choices,
Choices that should never be thought of.
For the rest of my life
I will have to run and hide
From this world unknown.
I am a survivor of abuse. I didn’t know I would be when I wrote this poem, yet fifth grader’s are smart. I wanted to run from this “world unknown” but instead I listened to the voices of abuse.
Worthlessness shouted the loudest.
Shame crept into the shadows of my heart and whispered reminders that led to insecurity and weakness.Hurt, pain, and rage shouted aloud in moments when I felt the most out of control,while self-blame and longing quarreled in the background.
Why did it take twenty years to talk about the abuse? Because it’s ugly.
It wasn’t until I sat in front of a marriage counselor and heard “I feel like I’m the predator,” from my husband, Neal, that I realized how abuse had infiltrated my life – our lives.
That awakening set us on a path to healing. And God’s redeeming grace has set us free to love unselfishly and silence the voices of past abuse in our lives. Retelling our is journey not so others can be voyeurs in our most intimate, and somewhat shameful, moments but to silence the snarling legacy of abuse.
Love,
Shannon
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name: You are mine.”
Isaiah 43:1
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Blessings
Shannon