When we are talking about doing God’s will…
When we are talking about standing in what is true…
When we are looking to experience ourselves, God & our lives in the way He intended…
…we must feel safe in truth.
Why wouldn’t we?
In popular American culture in the times of the “mid-century,” there was a radio show called “Truth or Consequences.” As a little girl, I remember flying over New Mexico and having the pilot announce that there was a town below us named “Truth or Consequences.” The town had decided to rename itself from “Hot Springs” in March of 1950, to the name of this show. It keeps that name, to this day.
It is a popular concept.
The idea that we must choose “Truth” or the “Consequences” of not telling the truth. But, I am here to tell you that “Truth” HAS “Consequences”…especially for children in abusive environments.
Women today, many grown Christian women, struggle to tell the truth to themselves and others, in their lives.
They struggle to live in the truth…sometimes struggle to identify the truth…and some struggle to hold themselves firm in that truth, tell it &, then, stand in the consequences.
Why is this? For many of these women, as children, the truth had SO MANY consequences.
If this child had parents with unresolved trauma ~ parents who lived in the shadows of their own lives & souls ~ parents who denied the truth within their own beings, within their own emotions and who had sacrificed their own perceptions & experiences of reality in their state of unhealed trauma ~ that child, typically, grew up in an environment fraught with those shadows, as well.
For example, if a child had an alcoholic parent (or two), they may have been or felt emotionally unsafe when the parent(s) was intoxicated. That child may have felt they had to go on pretending mom or dad were acting normally or face verbal wrath or beatings for suggesting something wasn’t right.
If a child was a victim of sexual abuse from a parent, other family member, close family friend or neighbor, that child may have felt the weight of destroying relationships, if she stood in the truth of what was happening to her.
If a child was regularly beaten physically by a golden child and faced further punishment for running to a parent for comfort after those beatings…only to be told it was deserved or hadn’t even happened…that child had to face that she was not protected. She had to face that the truth of her value was not what she thought it was…that the “truth” in that family was the golden child could do whatever he wanted – even if it was violence. And there was no way out.
She may try to leave & realize before reaching the house next door that she truly had nowhere to go. She may speak anyway and find herself ostracized and emotionally unsafe within her home.
The number of examples we can see in how a child can learn truth is terribly dangerous are endless. And, typically, that child learns to cope.
That child learns to find places within where truth is not required. That child can negotiate realities in order to save herself from the grief of the horrors happening around her.
And, as an adult, she may have all but forgotten those spaces have been re-arranged. Now, when seeking truth, there are so many negotiations and compromises within – which are her now her norm – that she isn’t even aware which end is up in any relationship…never mind how to stand in the truth of those circumstances and speak them.
And, then, there are the “Consequences.”
Even if she can find the truth…
Even if she can remember shadow from light…
Even if she can wrestle with layers of pain, self-protection & self-deception to SAY what needs to be said…
…can she handle the consequences?
Old triggers, unhealed trauma, unresolved pain & unidentified harmful patterns can stop a child with this history from getting to the point of knowing or speaking the truth. And, in this unhealed state, without having found the resolve and decisiveness…without having ever made that inner decision to choose the truth despite the consequences, she is lost today to find a way to please the Lord by knowing and standing in the truth.
Sister, if you know this pain…if you want to please the Lord but have a history like this one & often don’t know which way is up in what is true in your relationships, let alone how to speak & then stand in the truth & its consequences, we are here for you.
This ministry works with women to unpack the traumas of the past, so we may live free in the Truth today…following the Good Shepherd…obeying the Everlasting Father…speaking the Truth in Love and standing in the consequences, as an act of worship.
I am praying for you, Sisters.
I am praying for your recovery. I am praying for your wholeness. I am praying for the expansion of the Kingdom within you. I am praying for you to recover the places where these shadows lie within and bring the Light of His Truth to the corner of the Universe you occupy for Him.
If you would like to learn about this recovery, follow us on fb or Instagram at: http://Www.facebook.com/sistersdevoted or http://Www.instagram.com/sistersdevoted or sign up for more ministry info on our website and schedule a free consultation about how to come home to truth after abuse at: http://Www.sistersdevoted.com
To Freedom,
Amy
