Crying Out in Our Moment of Despair

            For three years, I suffered every kind of abuse you can imagine.  With each day, the abuse grew greater and my despair increased. Sadly, God had tried to warn me when I first entered this relationship, but I refused to heed his warning.  I thought I couldn’t live without this man. So, God gave […]

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Blinded by Beauty

            Last week, I shared a lesson from Beauty and the Beast and how love is unselfish.   This week, there is another lesson we can learn from this fairy tale.  The beast is depicted as just that, he looks like a beast, however when you look at his heart it begins to thaw and be […]

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Believing the Fairy Tale

          Growing up we read and watch multiple fairy tales that until recently always ended with “and they lived happily ever after”. I don’t know about you, but I bought into that fairy tale.  My parents had a happy marriage and my grandparents and great-grandparents {who were still living} had been married for what sounded like […]

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Why does this hurt so much?

I shared last week, reasons why I stayed until I had no choice but to be honest with myself and leave. However, there was another question I had to ask myself. Why does this hurt so much? The simple answer was because I loved him, but he did not love me. There were times when I could see the enjoyment […]

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Why are you staying?

When I was in my abusive relationship, I often had people ask why are you staying? At first, the answer was “because he loves me”.  But his actions did not show he loved me. Then it was, “because I love him”, but I was miserable in this relationship and everyone could see it in my eyes. Next came, “because I […]

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Breaking the Bonds

Breaking the bonds in an abusive relationship is not easy.  Even once I was free from my abuser, I continued to long to stay bound to my abuser.  He did everything he could to maintain contact and to continue to manipulate me once I left. Even once I broke off all communication, I still longed for him. I began to […]

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High Drama Turns Others Away

In the days when I was in my abusive relationship, I had several friends who were willing to help me escape.  However, they all had one stipulation.  When I walked away, I could not have any contact with Duncan or his family. I can’t tell you how many times in retrospect, I wish I had taken my friends up on […]

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Listening to our Intuition

In the early days of my relationship, when circumstances began to spin out of control, my gut began to knot up.  I knew that something was wrong and this was not how it should be. I had a day when my insides felt as if they were all twisted in knots and I felt as if a battle was raging […]

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Dancing Through the Pain

Recently, I was watching a movie where the young woman, who was a professional dancer, experienced a traumatic loss.  However, she wasn’t allowed to dance in the coveted part immediately following that loss.  She didn’t want to just dance the part, but NEEDED to dance the part in order to work through her pain.  She turned her back on dance […]

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Pray for the Hurting

When I was hurting, I was lost in myself. Later, I discovered that numerous friends and family were praying for me. When a loved one is hurting, often it is difficult to know what to do. I was too stubborn and hard headed to listen to advice that was given. Sadly, I had to learn the hard way and on […]

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Why does God allow me to hurt?

Have you ever wondered why did God allow this to happen? Why does God allow me to hurt? Why can’t I ever get a break? I’ve asked these questions time and again. Yet, we are told that God is love and works all things out for the good of those that love the Lord. To be used of God, means […]

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Do you love yourself?

Last week, I ended with the question do you love yourself? There are times when I have not loved myself. However, I’ve had to learn to love myself.  That doesn’t mean that I like everything about myself. I know my flaws and characteristics I’m working to change. However, I’m a child of the King. One of the biggest reasons I […]

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Healing Takes Time

When we’re hurting, it feels as if we’ll never be happy again. Sometimes we may hear someone laugh and wonder how they can have the gaul to laugh. Once we do finally laugh again, we wonder where that came from.  We may even feel guilty the first couple of times we laugh. Healing takes time and is a process. Our […]

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It’s Okay to be Angry

When we are hurting it’s so easy to see what everyone else has that we don’t have. It doesn’t matter what the situation is, someone else has that thing we so desperately long for or lost. Good health A spouse A child A job The little resentments begin to creep into our heart when we see or are around those […]

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The Pain Behind My Smile

When we pass one another in the hall it’s easy to paste on a smile and ask “how are you?” The majority of the time the person only wants to hear one response, “Fine”. But, how many times do we paste a smile on our face and lie. So why do we lie? We lie because we know that’s what […]

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It’s Okay to Cry

There are times when we are hurting that there are just no words to express how we feel. Our heart is broken.  All we want to do is cry. It’s okay to cry. Sometimes tears are the best way to express all of the emotions we have pent up inside.  Crying is a healthy for us.  Research shows that crying […]

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Begin with Baby Steps

After two months of hurting and barely making it through each day, I realized that life goes on. I had a loved one that prompted me to move back into society. No, I didn’t jump in with both feet.  Honestly, I took it one baby step at a time. I slowly made decisions about how to being living again. To […]

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It’s Okay to Hurt

Today, I am starting a new topic on Monday’s: Hope and Encouragement for the Hurting and Brokenhearted.  At some point we all hurt or are brokenhearted from circumstances in our lives whether it is the loss of a loved one, being depressed, an act of violence or a number of other situations. It’s Okay to Hurt When I left my abusive […]

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What is Your Legacy?

I recently discovered that a great-aunt I had not seen in decades died weeks before turning 100 years old.  I had so many family history questions I wish she’d answered but numerous request over the years went unanswered. I was saddened but not surprised to discover she was not only been mean, but nasty to all of those close to […]

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