Wisdom

There are times when I can relate a little bit with King Solomon. I can just imagine how overwhelmed Solomon felt when he first became King of Israel. He had to make choices all the time. His word was the final word, so he probably felt the heaviness that having that kind of power put on his shoulders. He said he felt like a little child, without the experience to know what to do. 1 Kings 3.

This week I have been feeling just like that, wondering who in their right mind would have put me in charge of my children.

I want to be a mother that offers wise and teaching words to her children, not words influenced by emotions and “hormones”, and lack of self-control. I want to be the wife that keeps her mouth shut instead of saying foolish things to her husband.

I would like to be the mom that knows exactly what to tell her pre-teen daughter when she is having a problem, or the wife that encourages her husband when he is down, or the woman that makes wise choices when it comes to her health.


So far this week, my words and actions have been everything but constructive and uplifting. I have lacked self-control. I am lacking WISDOM.

Unfortunately, I struggle quite a bit with asking for help! It could be a lack of humility, too much pride… I do not want to see it or admit it but it is the truth. For the last couple of nights though, I have felt the need to ask God for help, for wisdom.

I went back and read the passage about Solomon in in 1 Kings 3. I read James 1:5.  In this verse, God tells us that "If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father. He loves to Help. You'll get his help, and won't be condescended to when you ask for it."

Could it be this simple? I never feel a “magic spell” when I read the Bible or when I pray. Some people claim they do, sometimes I wish I did. However, I have been feeling better about things since I’ve spent some time reading. I do not feel any wiser yet, but I know I feel calmer and have a better perspective about things.

So for now I will continue reading :)

Serving is Painful

Actually, quite literally for me right now. I was reminded of this last night in a very physical way when I sliced my thumb with a Swiss knife while helping set-up the props for the program our church’s Drama Ministry was presenting.

Although it is still quite sore, I think my thumb is going to be OK. The incident however, got me thinking about the whole subject of serving. For me serving comes quite natural. Acts of Service is actually my primary Love Language Haha! I tend to want DO things for the people I love or care about. However, just because it comes natural, it does not mean is easy.

At times, I become overwhelmed by all the responsibilities I take on at church. Other times I become resentful that others seem to dodge their own responsibilities because they know that I will pick up the slack. Sometimes I just openly wonder if all the sacrifices, the energy spent, the time away from my family, the putting up with criticism, the getting physically hurt is really worth it.

I have noticed that when I start questioning if it is really worth it it is because I am losing focus of the reason I am serving. I start getting all caught up in the negativity, or the lack of appreciation, or the need for perfection, and start a little pity party taking my eyes off Jesus, “who leads us and makes our faith complete. He endured the shame of being nailed to a cross, because he knew that later on he would be glad he did.” Hebrews 12:2

Do I like the pain? Well, no… and yes. Nobody likes to get hurt or feel overwhelmed at the task at hand. But when I see a group of young people excited about attending and participating in church activities, when I see my daughters interested in helping, being in setting up chairs for Sabbath School or making last minute copies, when a church visitor shares how a children’s presentation touched their heart, I am reminded that yes, it is all worth it.

Going Through The Motions

The drama group my daughter Kaitlin is part of at church just started putting together a skit to the music of a Christian song by Matthew West – The Motions.

I have not kept very up to date on contemporary Christian (I have been listening more to Pulse FM to remedy that) music so last week was the first time I heard the song.

“I don’t wanna go through the motions
I don’t wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion
Inside of me
I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking,
“What if I had given everything,
Instead of going through the motions?”

Since then, I have listened to the song several times on the radio. It has hit a chord with me. The lyrics pretty much depict where my life is at right now. Everyday I follow the same routine. I get up and do things in pretty much the same order each time. I do not think about it, I just do it. On the way to school sometimes the girls ask me what exit we are up to and I cannot answer them. I do not know. I am on autopilot, on cruise control. The only time I stop and take notice is when something is off.

I realize several factors have lead to this season in my life. One of them is fear to appear vulnerable, to get hurt. What if I pour my heart and all my energy into improving my marriage and he does not do the same? What if people respond negatively to my efforts to pump life back into my ministry at church?

This might hurt, it’s not safe
But I know that I’ve gotta make a change
I don’t care if I break,
At least I’ll be feeling something
‘Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the
Nothingness of life.

I am a passionate person by nature, a choleric, by older psychology terms. I feel deep and raw emotions. I get frustrated with myself when I am doing the bare minimum, just getting by. How did I get here? Is it that I am trying to balance too many things at once? Is it that I am afraid to bite the bullet and just get out of my comfort zone and start making a change?

No regrets, not this time
I’m gonna let my heart defeat my mind
Let Your love make me whole
I think I’m finally feeling something
‘Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the
Nothingness of this life.

Take me all the way.

I need to refocus, to re-discover the little things that bring me joy, what I’m passionate about. What do you do when you find yourself just going through the motions?

Simple Tuesday

This is the last installment of Simple Tuesdays. I wanted to finish discussing the rest of the Forgiveness Myths Dr. Jennings discusses in his book. I encourage you to buy this BOOK; it really has made a major difference in my life.

Disclaimer: The words below are not mine originally, I'm offering a recap of some of the concepts presented, paraphrasing and using direct quotes from the book. I hope I am not breaking any copyright laws by doing this, and if somebody finds that I am please notify me immediately and I will take the post down.

Myth: Forgiveness Leads to Greater Vulnerability

A likely response of someone that has been seriously wronged or abused is to develop resentment and anger. Believe it or not, this is personally my biggest obstacle when trying to forgive somebody. When I am angry, I feel strong and less vulnerable. I struggle with this all the time. The idea of not having this anger or rage sometimes feel like we are losing power and we therefore become more vulnerable.

If we were to reason this through, however, we would realize that forgiving does not increase our vulnerability. If somebody robs our house and we forgive him, does that mean that we are going to leave our doors unlocked, or will not take extra precautions? In reality, we are probably now more aware and alert and take more precautions.

Another problem of holding on to bitterness and anger is that it makes us overly sensitive and we become emotional time bombs that go off at the slightest touch.

Dr. Jennings gives the analogy of someone that went to the beach and came back home with a severe sunburn. If their child decided to jump on their back or their husband decided to give them a hug, they will probably scream in anger and pain and push them away. In addition, if somebody actually purposely slapped their back, that person would probably get more than they even deserve for their transgression.

When we forgive, we heal the emotional sunburns in our hearts and are able to enjoy other experiences without pain or irritation.

Myth: Forgiving Someone Means That What that Person Did Was OK

Sometimes we hesitate to forgive others in our hearts because we do not want to give he other person the impression that what they did was OK. This comes from the mis-understanding that sin is a legal problem and that forgiveness is judicial act, therefore, when you forgive – poof – the record is erased.

What we need to remember is that sin (selfish bad acts) damages the sinner, and even if the sinner is forgiven, the effect has already occurred. Imagine a person that murders someone. The family of the victim could choose to genuinely forgive the murderer, however, the effect of his act has already occurred. The murderer might even repent, and experience restoration of his heart and mind; however, most likely, he will still have to suffer the consequences of their actions.

When we forgive, we are not endorsing unhealthy behavior; we are just demonstrating the only healthy response.

Myth: Forgiving means that the Guilty person Gets Away with it

This myth is closely related to the previously discussed one except it deals more with forgiving somebody when one perceives they will not be getting the consequences they deserve. When no penalty exists, we have difficulty forgiving, because it seems nobody is holding the sinner accountable.

Again, the key is to remember that sin damages the sinner. Dr. Jennings gives a simple example. If your husband decides, he will not take the time to brush his teeth so he has an extra couple of minutes in the morning, would you think he was getting a better deal? Of course not, his teeth would decay. In the same way, people that continuously override their conscience and continue sinning are destroying their soul. These people struggle with their self-esteem and self-worth and would be more likely to succumb to guilt, depression and anxiety.

Sin damages us. The only way to repair the damage is to cooperate with God for the healing and transformation of our mind. Forgiving others is one of the steps we can take to begin that restoration.

Myth: God’s Forgiveness Equals Salvation

In the context of our relationship with God, this myth is very damaging. It’s closely related to the myth I discussed a couple of weeks ago “God does not forgive us until we plead forgiveness”.

Salvation requires not only God forgiveness but also repentance on the part of the sinner. Even though God forgives us, we will not be saved unless we open our hearts to God’s forgiveness and have a change of heart (repent). Only when forgiveness and repentance are present can reconciliation with God occur.

The misunderstanding that Christ came to deliver us from the consequences of sins is very damaging. Christians all over the planet cling to this believe without feeling the real burden for the sins they are committing. The believe that God was not free to forgive unless some recompense was offered is a mis-representation of the true mission of Christ.

What God is trying to accomplish in our lives is the healing and transformation of our mind. Accepting Christ as our Savior opens up our minds and leads us to experience the burden of the sins we commit which in turn leads to repentance and true restoration of God’s image in our lives.

This concludes the mini-series Simple Tuesday. I hope you enjoyed the concepts discussed. Did you find it helpful? It certainly made me look at the issue of forgiveness in a new light.

Have a great Tuesday!

Simple Tuesday

Today I would like to discuss two other myths about forgiveness discussed in the book "Could It Be This Simple?". These are myths that hamper people's abilities to reap the benefits of forgiveness and cause them to hold on to their hurt and pain.

Again here goes the disclaimer.

Disclaimer: The words below are not mine originally, I'm offering a recap of some of the concepts presented, paraphrasing and using direct quotes from the book. I hope I am not breaking any copyright laws by doing this, and if somebody finds that I am please notify me immediately and I will take the post down.

Myth: Forgiveness Means Restored Trust.

Imagine a woman whose husband has cheated on her several times. Each time that is has happened the husband runs to his church minister, and the minister comes talk to her about how she needs to forgive him, talks to her about how is genuinely sorry, the husband confesses his sins, and promises to never, ever do that again to her. She takes him back and he continues to do the same thing over and over. Would forgiving him mean that she needs to keep trusting him even after he has shown her plenty of evidence that he can not be trusted?

As we previously talked, forgiving somebody changes the offended person. It uproots their resentment and bitterness out of their mind restoring balance. Forgiving, however, does not mean we need to trust the offender once again. We can only trust them once their character changes and they become trustworthy.

Dr. Jennings explains there are two types of mistrust.

1. The mistrust you feel around people that are malevolent, evil, that you know are set out to do bad. To most people is very clear that people like this can not be trusted. A good example of this would maybe be Osama Bin Laden.

He explains that most people get stuck on that level of trust and feel guilty and expose themselves to undue hurt because they do not believe there was a malevolent intent on the offender's part and they keep trusting them. And this brings us to the second type of mistrust.

2. The mistrust you should feel around people that even though do not have evil in their hearts, are not mature or responsible enough to be trusted.

It is very confusing to deal with people like this, because they are sincere in their confessing. At the moment they are confessing they could even pass a lie detector test. They really mean it and feel sorry for having offended you, and they did not intend to do you harm, but they have not developed a mature character, therefore can not be trusted with the responsibility.

Genuine forgiveness does not require us to put ourselves at the mercy of people that cannot be trusted. We need to look at their nature and the evidences they have provided about their character. We can forgive them but know they are not trustworthy.

There is one other myth I find closely relates to this one.

Myth: Forgiveness Means Forgetting

"Forgive and Forget", the old saying goes. Many people believe than in order to forgive they have to be willing to forget. In other words, pretend that nothing bad happened. They use passages from the Bible to explain that this is what God does with our sins.

The Bible says: “I am who blots out your sins, and remembers them no more.” Isaiah 43:35. “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Hebrews 8:12 “I will forgive their wickedness and I will never again remember their sins.” Jeremiah 31:34

Does this mean that unless we erase from our memory the wrongs done against us, we are not truly forgiving? Does it mean that God applies Jesus’ blood to our record and it becomes a magic eraser that instantly erases our sins? Of course not. God does not change and His memory can not be erased. God “forgets” our sins in the sense that once he has forgiven us He will not use our sins as evidence against us.

The same way when dealing with our relationships true forgiveness does not require literal memory erasure, it means the transgression is not relevant to the relationship and no special precautions are needed. Of course, this can only happen if the offender has become trustworthy and reconciliation (forgiveness + repentance) has taken place.

Dr. Jennings believes the notion that God forgets our sins from His memory comes from a misunderstanding regarding the judgment. Many of us have always been taught that when the time of the judgment comes, God will take a look at our records and none of the transgressions we have confessed will appear, Jesus name will appear in their place.

Most likely, what will happen at judgment time is something like this, Satan will stand in front of God and accuse us of all the bad things that we have done. God will look at our record and say something like this: “The historical facts you are stating are correct, but they are no longer relevant because Ileana now has a new heart and a new spirit, she is no longer practicing your methods, and she is coming home with me.”

When the Pharisees were complaining about Mary Magdalene washing Jesus’ feet, Jesus stated that “those who are forgiven much, love much” If we do not remember our sins, we will not have a reason to love much. In Revelations is stated that we will sing a song of our experiences, if we do not remember them, we will not have too much to sing about. Once we are healed we will still remember the history of our illness, but it will just add to our appreciation of God for the special efforts He devoted to us.

Next week I will discuss the rest of the forgiveness myths presented in the book.

Have a good Tuesday!

Simple Tuesday

I started this post some weeks ago, but for some reason hesitated to post it until now.

Some of you are aware of a book I have been reading by Tim R Jennings titled “Could it be this Simple?” This little book has made a profound effect in my life. I do not know how to explain it, the author does present a simple truth, but that truth is at the same time complex and deep and it made me look at things in ways I had not before.

I thought I would start a mini-series based on what I am learning from this book. I will call it “Simple Tuesday”. I will try to post weekly on some of the concepts the book presents.

Disclaimer: The words below are not mine originally, I'm offering a recap of some of the concepts presented, paraphrasing and using direct quotes from the book. I hope I am not breaking any copyright laws by doing this, and if somebody finds that I am please notify me immediately and I will take the post down.

One of the chapters that immediately called my attention was Chapter 12 “Forgiveness” However, being a tad obsessive compulsive, I normally do not like to jump out of order when I am reading a book. Since I had to go back and re-read several of the initial chapters to better understand the concepts presented, it took me a while to get to Chapter 12. When I finally did, it had a tremendous impact in the way I now look at forgiveness not just between humans, but also between God and us.

Dr. Jennings presents Seven Common Myths or Misconceptions that people have about forgiveness. Today I would like to talk about this one.

Myth: Forgiveness comes after the offender says they are sorry.

This is a very common belief, is it not? Many people believe that they do not have to forgive somebody until that person comes and asks for forgiveness, and even then, if you choose to forgive them you feel like you are doing that person a favor.

In reality, a fact confirmed by Dr. Jennings, forgiveness is 100% for the sake of the person that was offended. When somebody offends us, the seed of anger, hostility and bitterness is planted in our heart (our mind). If we let it take root and start to grow, our mind will then become just like the mind of the offender. The only weapon we have to fight the sins planted in our minds is forgiveness. Only when we truly forgive from our hearts we uproot the sins of anger and hostility and restore balance to our mind. Forgiveness is not just an act or event, where you say, “It’s OK I forgive you.” Forgiveness is a process, it involves you making the decision to work through the emotions and pain and reach out to the offending person in an effort to understand what happened and offer a way for them to restore their relationship with you.

Dr. Jennings explains that this is exactly what God did when Adam sinned. Adam ran from God and hid because now he did not trust Him anymore. God ran after Adam not to punish him or seek revenge for breaking his law but to reach out and restore the broken relationship. Unfortunately men misunderstood God’s motives and have been running from God ever since.

The Bible teaches that God forgiveness came before men repentance. Romans 5:8 states “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.

Dr. Jennings also addresses the misunderstanding that is so deeply rooted in the Christian world in regards to the reason Christ came to die for us.

Many of us have the belief that God requires appeasement or payment in order for Him to forgive us. That Jesus came to pay that legal debt to the Father. That He came to pay for our sins. However, the Bible teaches that God forgives our sins. If God forgave us, is there a debt that needs to be paid? And if Jesus paid the debt, can God then forgive us?

Dr. Jennings gives a practical example of this contradiction. Imagine that a relative owes you $1000. They come to you and tell you they just don’t have a way to pay you back and you tell them “It’s OK, I forgive your debt” Can you still collect that debt if you forgave it? Or imagine this other scenario, the relative owes you the $1,000 and they have a rich friend that comes and pays the entire debt in their behalf. Can you now forgive that debt? If you forgive, you cannot collect.

Jesus paid and the Father forgave. See the contradiction?

Jesus had to come to earth and die, not to get God to forgive us (they are both the same, on the same side), but to do something that simple forgiveness could not do, to restore in the human race God’s perfect Law of Love. The only way to get rid of sin is to live in complete accord with God’s Law of Love. That is what Jesus came to accomplish.

Dr. Jennings explains that the two principles at war in the universe are God’s perfect Law of Love vs. Satan's Survival of the Fittest principle. God’s principle says: “I love you so much that I will do everything in my power to help you even if that means giving up my life and dying so that you can live.” Satan’s principle says: “I love myself so much that I will do anything to promote myself and help me get ahead, even if that means killing you so I can live.”

When sin entered the world, we contracted the disease of selfishness. The only cure for this disease was self-sacrificing love. No human was able to do this for ourselves. Jesus came to live a perfect live in perfect harmony with God’s law in order to restore in the human race God’s perfect law, the remedy for our sinful condition. He was constantly tempted to make use of His power to save himself but he lived a perfectly selfless life. He had to die, not as a payment for our sins, but because if at any point he would have used his power to save himself from the imminent death, he would have acted in a self-serving way. By giving his life for us, he destroyed Satan and his principle of selfishness and He now freely offers this victory to us. Is through a real connection with Jesus Christ that what he has achieved in our behalf becomes a reality in our lives through the work of the Holy Spirit.

What do you think of the discussed above? I would love to read your comments.

Next week I will discuss some of the other myths about forgiveness that the book presents.

Our Church Rocks!!

This Sabbath marked the eighth annual celebration of our Church Children’s Sabbath. It really was a special day! The children participated of a worship service prepared specifically for them and the day ended with a very fun Carnival Party. I really felt God’s blessings throughout the day and was happy we accomplished all the goals we had for this program and went even beyond our expectations.

As I was uploading the pictures into my computer that night it struck me that for my girls participating in church is so second nature, they do not look at it as anything out of the ordinary. Even I have to admit I have never even created a scrapbook page about the different programs and activities the girls have participated.

You would think with church life being such an important part of our lives their scrapbooks would be full of pages documenting those activities, but not even one page have I made. It scares me to think that I am inadvertedly passing the message to the girls that what we do in church is not our real life. Documenting birthday parties, holidays, vacations, those are worth of scrapbook pages and documenting, but participating in church is not part of our “main life”.

I hope that is not the case. I hope the girls do see their involvement in church as something special and worthy. I think they do. Just yesterday, Kaitlin had a friend over for a play date, they were talking about church and the different activities they have, and she told her friend, “I wish you would attend our church, it’d be so great to have my friend there”. Her friend replied with, “Why don’t YOU come to my church?” Kaitlin’s answer was “because my church ROCKS, they really care about the children and we are always doing activities.” Then I also heard her brag a little saying “my mom is the Children’s Ministries director.”

However, the realization that I might be passing on the wrong message really gave me a wake up call. I do not want them to grow up leading double lives, the church life and then our “real life”. I want the two to be merged; I want them to realize that our spiritual life should be our “real” life and what directs and gives meaning to everything we do.

D@ncing in the R@in

We have been experiencing some ‘storms” in our extended family for some time now. It has been rough, to say it mildly, and it has affected all of us. Our family is dysfunctional in that sense, we get overly involved into each other’s businesses and it becomes hard to detach from the situation and look at things objectively. We feed off each other in our frenzy to “calm down the storm” and our lives come to a standstill until the storm passes.

Today I received an e-mail from a co-worker; her signature included the quote on the picture above,

“… Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to d@nce in the r@in”

We face storms on a daily basis, granted, some storms are more like hurricanes, but if our attitude does not let us enjoy life until the storm passes, we will live a life devoid of any enjoyment. Easier said than done, I know, but I want to learn to d@nce in the r@in.

A Late Start

I am a pastor’s kid. I was brought up in the Seventh Day Adventist Church since birth. I have been married to a Christian man for almost 13 years and been a mother for 10 and a half of those. For the last ten years I have been actively involved in my church’s Children’s Ministries, thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to minister to the church children and my own. Yet, I have a confession to make, I do not conduct Family Worship at home. In fact for most of my adult life I have hated the thought of having Family Worship.

Ever since I can remember, my parents religiously conducted Family Worship twice a day in our home. Every day, rain or shine we had to get up in the morning for worship and then again we would get together in the evening. Our worships were very formal; there was no room for jokes or wiggling around. Singing was not optional, the content was always very deep, we would be asked questions and we couldn’t get away with “I don’t knows”. There was nothing enjoyable about these family moments, my parents always managed to make us believe we were horrible Christians if we did not joyfully participated and this left us feeling guilty for most of our childhood. I hated those worship sessions with a passion! Some of the most tense moments and the biggest arguments I had with my parents, happened during the family worship time. It’s not surprise than when I left home to go to college I did not continue having regular worship time.

I promised myself that if I ever had children, they would not have to go through these painful worship sessions. And until very recently I have pretty much kept my word. If we are home, we might have worship on Friday evening to receive the Sabbath, but it has not been very consistent at all. I secretly hoped my husband would take the leadership in this area; unfortunately, it just did not work out that way.

All these years, I have struggled with this issue. I believe in the concept of Family Worship. I believe we are mandated by God to educate and instruct our children in a godly manner, and family worship should be the center of the home. But I just couldn’t shake the mental block. Ironically, when I tried to have worship with the girls, I reverted, I guess to what family worship was at my home, and it would never be a very enjoyable experience for the girls. Even though I hate it, I guess I tend to think that Family Worship has to be formal, that the content has to be deep, and it should be a solemn moment. When they start to wiggle around, or not pay enough attention, I feel like I have failed and the worship always ends abruptly.

This year, however, I have decided to break away with all my preconceptions or what family worship should or shouldn’t be. I’m just going to try to have a moment with the girls every day where we discuss something related to our spiritual lives. I bought each of them an age appropriate devotional book and I have been spending about 5 or 10 minutes a day reading the devotions and discussing them with them. It’s not very formal, the devotions are very short and simple, some days I read the devotions to each girl separately, some other days they are both together. We still don’t have a “routine” set up, and who knows if we will ever get one. My goal is to do it consistently every day. I’m already seeing positive results both in their spirituality and mine. As the saying goes: It’s never too late…

One Word

I was inspired by a post by Ali Edwards in her blog to choose a word to focus on in the new year. She did this last year too. This word is supposed to be your mantra for the year. (The word she chose for this year is VITALITY).

I have been thinking about this trying to come up with a word that would sum up what I want to focus on this New Year. “Peace” was the first thing that popped into my mind. I have felt so stressed out this year and just so restless, finding a way to attain peace would be wonderful. However, after playing with the word in my mind and trying to define what peace would mean to me I found the word too abstract. I looked at the list of words that people left in Ali’s blog comments and one finally stuck. Are you ready? My word is (drum roll, please) CONNECT. Ta dah!!

There are several definitions in the dictionary for this word, but this one better describes how I’m looking at it

CONNECT: be or become joined or united or linked; "The two streets connect to become a highway"; "Our paths joined”.

Over the last few years, I have slowly disconnected myself from a lot of things that normally would bring me joy and balance and this in turn filled me with unhappiness and depression. I want to work on connecting with my God, my self, my body, my family, my husband, my friends. Honestly, it seems an overwhelming and impossible wish right now. It’s unnatural for me to want to connect to something or somebody. I hate leaning on people or asking for help. Don’t know why, I’m usually happy to help others when asked. However, being this “self-sufficient” normally leaves me feeling alone and empty.

I found this little book Prayer Country: A Tour Guide to the Wonders of Prayer while visiting my in-laws over the holidays and decided to “borrow” it. I have started reading it and it has peak my interest to “explore” Prayer Country. She gives specific guidelines on different prayer methods that have brought positive results in her life. I will share with you my experiences.

Happy New Year!

WOUNDED HEALERS

On my way to work, this morning I listened to a couple of devotionals from a book titled New Day New You by Joyce Meyer. Now, I do not particularly know much about Joyce Meyer beliefs or the doctrine she preaches, but I do enjoy listening to her on TV and find that through her sermons she challenges you to greatness. Part of her message spoke to me this morning. It was based on Psalms 109:22 “For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me."

The gist of her message is that we should seek healing from God for our wounds or we might become wounded healers trying to minister to others. Once we are healed He can then use us to bring healing to others. She stated that God is not looking for wounded healers. If we are still bleeding and hurting from our own wounds we won’t be able to transmit to others the same aggressive faith that we would if we had already worked through those problems and experience victory from God.

It touched me because I want to be able to minister to my girls and transmit to them those lessons learned from my life and from my mistakes. Their well being and happiness is the most important thing to me. However, I tend to neglect my own well-being and as a result end up “bleeding” all over them because my own wounds are not healed yet.

Joyce’s message this morning has given me motivation to present my wounds to God and ask for His healing so He can better use me when ministering to my family and those around me.