Blink!

I remember the day I held our firstborn in my arms, and suddenly our lives were changed forever. We weren't really sure we even knew what to do with this new blessing. But like all parents, we learned. In fun, I remember calculating the year of his high school graduation. At that time, 1999 sounded eons away. But then--we blinked--and it was here. We blinked again…and our middle son left in 2002. One more blink…and our daughter left in 2006. 

And as quickly as we became new parents, we became empty-nesters, and suddenly our lives were changed again. And again, we weren't really sure we even knew what to do with this new blessing.

Healing the Wounded Heart (A Prayer)

Father God,

Though so many of us try to hide it with a smile, we know that inside we are broken and bruised, wounded by issues of long ago and left unchecked. We are the walking wounded plagued by feelings of hurt, neglect, abuse and abandonment. Many of us have attempted to find relief by our own methods but instead found ourselves feeling even emptier, even spiraling into depression. 

We learn that sins of omission (neglect, abandonment, etc.) are just as damaging to the soul as the sins of commission. Emotional wounds become so deeply embedded that it begins to feel "normal", setting ourselves up to continue to cycle.

Infection extends into relationships and marriage like a virus, spreading a new strain of sin-saturated remnants stained by years of buried emotions. Deep-seeded anger follows closely, while anger’s close companion, bitterness, begins to rot the soul and distressing the body.(Heb. 12:15)

But, You, O God, desire healing for Your children, (Ps. 147:3)  and are greater than all of our hurts, all of our neglect, all of our abandonment, and all of our rejection. You are more than able to comfort us in all our afflictions. (2 Cor. 1:4) You lead us in paths of righteousness for Your name’s sake. (Ps. 23:3) You desire righteousness for us, Father, (Matt. 5:6) for sin and righteousness cannot coexist.

Thank you for revealing Your righteousness to us, bringing light to darkness and exposing areas of sin in our lives. Thank you for walking with us through the valleys of past hurts, (Ps. 23: 4) not to revisit our pain, but to reveal Your healing through our forgiveness. (Matt. 6:12) Lack of forgiveness is sin, creating ugly and festering wounds in our lives in which all the perfumes of religious activities cannot remove, but only superficially mask. (Romans 8:6)

Your mercy and grace, O God, and Your forgiveness completely remove the deep underlying roots of the disease of our souls, as Jesus Christ, the Balm of Gilead, brings restoration and healing to the wounded heart. You restore us to the joy of Your salvation, Father, granting us a willing spirit to sustain us. (Ps. 51:12, Ps. 149:4) Your compassion and mercy reveal the hurts of those who have hurt us, helping us to understand their own pain. Hurt people often hurt people. Thank you for helping us to forgive as You have forgiven us.

Your Word tells us that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor. 6:19) You bring us out of the midst of sin, (Col. 1:13) and desire for us to touch only that which is clean, and nothing that is unclean. (2 Cor. 6:17) You are my Father, God, and I am your daughter/son. Blessed be the name of the Lord, in all the earth. (Ps. 72:19)

Thank you Father, for Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God and Light of the world, (John 8:12) Who shines the light of righteousness into the dark corners of our lives (2 Sam. 22:29) revealing those things You desire to remove as You lead us in Your paths of righteousness. Thank you for Your forgiveness as we forgive those who trespass against us.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Lover of My Soul

I have another Lover in my life…

Now that I have your attention, let me explain.  

I wish I could say that I have had the storybook, romance novel marriage since the moment we said, “I do”. As I’ve shared in previous posts, the spiritual foundation on which we began our marriage was indeed a sandy one. My husband had scarcely stepped foot inside a church building outside of our wedding day, and though I had been raised in the church, my life surely did not reflect any signs of true Christianity. 

Therefore, as things began to deteriorate in our marriage within only a few years, we had nothing on which to stand for stability.  Our only guidelines were our feelings--anger, sadness, fear, and bitterness, resentment. A friend of mine suggested marital counseling, giving me the number of one she and her husband used. I called the counselor and set up the first appointment for myself—alone. 

I entered his office to find two chairs placed about three feet apart, directly opposite the other. He politely seated me in one, and with yellow legal pad in hand, took his seat in the other. After the customary exchange of pleasantries, he began his routine, but not before throwing out this odd disclaimer: 

“I am extremely attracted to you, but I am not going to allow that to distract me from counseling you.” 

Okay, what am I supposed to do with that?