"Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance.
And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours.
“For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing.
In my faithfulness I will reward my people and make an everlasting covenant with them.
Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed.”
I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations."
Isaiah 61: 7-11
My Story
God caught my attention in a major way and began His transformation in me over 20 years ago. At that time I began a very intense process of deep healing and mind renewal. I began hearing truth for the first time in my life and it resonated with the deepest part of my soul! Words of truth nourished my soul, giving me strength and courage to open up deep wounds and grieve unprocessed pain. God graciously shined His light into areas of my heart that needed attention and healing. He comforted me and held me tight; gave me new ways to understand things that had happened to me; corrected many of the thoughts I had about myself and life in general; and gave me tools to affirm and validate myself in His truth. God restored my hope and revived my spirit with a strong desire to live well and in the light of His truth!
I grew up in a chaotic, grief stricken and dangerous environment. My parents were hijacked by grief resulting from the tragic death of a close family member when I was three years old. They medicated their pain with a crazy lifestyle characterized by selfish behaviors and a preoccupation with power and prestige. My siblings and I had to fend for ourselves and I instinctively adopted a strong survival-based mindset to protect myself from pain. When I was 12 years old, my parents divorced and I became the victim of an endless power struggle between my parents and was tossed back and forth between two unpredictable homes. Needless to say, I entered my teens filled with confusion, pain, anger and resentment (of which I was not yet aware) and I rebelled hard - against myself and against authority! I was depressed, suicidal, bulimic and emotionally unstable. I rebelled to get back at them, but mostly I harmed myself, desperate to prove true the lies I had come to believe about myself.
Unfortunately, I lived in this condition well into my twenties, wreaking havoc on my body, mind, and spirit so that when God finally got my attention 15 years ago, I was a mess! I was a divorced mother of 2 children, imparting similar patterns of dysfunction onto my own children. One day I woke up painfully aware of disturbingly familiar patterns of behavior being displayed in my pre-teen children. I dropped to my knees that day, pleading to God to deliver me from the chaos and show me another way - and he did!
God is faithful! My journey eventually took me back to college and I am now helping others process their emotional pain and develop healthy new behavior/thought patterns that more accurately reflect their true identity in Christ.