November 22, 2006

• Just visiting

  I took today to visit your sites, wanting to make sure that before all the preparations for Thanksgiving that I at least got to say “Hi” to you and catch up on what is going on in your lives.

  I had fun today, it was report card day for my kids, and I got to divide up the kids teachers with my husband and we went and met every teacher. I love doing this because my kids are well behaved, and the teachers have many compliments about them. My middle son could be a bit more focused on studies, but even he came away with merit honors, and my others came away with high honors. I am very proud of their hard work. Hard to believe that next year my oldest is off to college. Sigh. They grow so fast.

  Someone recommended a book to me called: It Hurts to Heal. I searched Amazon and found a few titles, figuring that the one they meant was by John and Christine Huggett. It came in the mail yesterday and I have been riveted.

  Wanted to share a quote: on page 53 Christine Huggett is talking about a retreat that she and her husband went to to learn prayer counseling

  ” The first part of each day was filled with lectures. We were reminded that we can all be bound to habits, fears, circumstances, and negative attitudes. We can also be bound to people in unhelpful ways, especially our parents and those closest to us. But the Lord can set us free from these invisible chains. He has given us His word, the sword of the Spirit, to cut right through them. Sometimes the bonds are too strong for us to break through by our own prayers and we need experienced Christians to do it for us in Jesus’ name.
       Negative attitudes, such as guilt and resentment, can damage us inwardly and affect our health. But the Lord will replace them with positive ones, like love and forgiveness, as we cooperate with Him.
       What interested me most was the healing of the memories, for I knew that I needed this. The leaders reminded us that we act and react according to our backgrounds, that we are all products of our yesterdays. Memories of traumatic events together with hurts and wounds, are stored in our subconscious minds and lie buried there. Because Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever he can go back in time and heal these things, dealing with them at their very root. We can go back with him in our imagination as he gently soothes away the pains of the past.
      This is rather like peeling an onion. He begins with the outer layer and removes a layer at a time as we are ready, gradually working deeper. This doesn’t mean that incidents are forgotten, but that we are released from the painful effects which they have had upon us, so discovering a new freedom.”

  This is a remarkable description of how God has been working in my life. When I first started counseling with Pastor Don, I felt such a void. To be honest, there are still areas in my life that I wonder if they will ever be healed. Yet, God had done a remarkable work on me so I have to have faith that He will heal all areas, including the ones that are still hurting.

  One time I asked Pastor Don why some seem so quickly healed and for me the process has been slow – seemingly grain of sand upon grain of sand. Pastor Don told me that God had healed me completely, but He is removing the old layers bit by bit. He knows just how much I can handle at a time and, while He will move me beyond my comfort zone, he will not crush me – a bruised reed he will not crush. God knows the best way to effect total healing, and which areas to work on at a time. I just have to trust Him, for He will complete the work in me that He has begun. It is rather like peeling an onion.

  That does not negate that I am a new creation in Christ Jesus, even though old areas are being removed, but there are still some strongholds of resistance. It reminds me of the devotional that occasionally comes my way about Jesus coming to visit my house, and I let him in the living room, he wants to go into another room, etc. Each room He enters He changes for the better until the place of last resistance, the attic, and Jesus goes in there and finally the whole house (our body) is perfect for there is no area closed to Jesus. Believe me, the devotional says it better.

  For me, I think that there are a few pockets of resistance. One of which is that there is still a bit of an air of being ruined goods – that what my father did to me damaged me far too much. There is no childlike innocence for I was never allowed to be childlike, so don’t have a clue. There is far too much control, for control meant survival, and there is still a lot of tiptoeing around in the kingdom, fearful of attracting the attention of God.

  I know that this is not fair to God, because God is not like that, but I have to battle these false beliefs in my life. The other area is that I still tend to not take care of my body too much, things like diet and walking around feeling out of place. Again, this is not fair to God, for God created me and I know God does not create junk.

  Anyway, there are still areas that need healing. That being said, I am so grateful that God came into my life, that He pursued me for 40 years when I wanted nothing to do with Him. That He has blessed me, protected me, and is helping me to become more what He knows is best for me. He truly has made beauty from ashes, and turned mourning into dancing (or at least great happiness).

  I am hoping that you have a blessed day. Tomorrow is shopping for Thursday. I have ordered the turkey and have to pick it up and all the fixings. The kids are off from school for the rest of the week, and I have to tell you that that will SEVERELY limit my computer time.

  Have a blessed Thanksgiving and rest of the week.

  Heather

  • 12:13 am
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