Healing with God has a profound difference than healing without Him. He is love. His love is what I needed to change.
When I told my story of witnessing a murder as a child, I brought it first to my mother. What a shame that was. She never even tried to console me. Ya know, I truly wanted her to reach across our great divide between each other and hug me. She did nothing of the sort. In her greedy narcissism she only asked me what the woman looked like. That truly was her only concern.
Love did not exist in my early years. It just did not.
This is where God steps in and changes everything. My bleak existence started to bloom the more I grew around Him.
You see God is love. It’s not what He does – it is who He is.
Paul describes it best in Corinthians 13:
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
Leaving my parents house at 18, I was truly nothing.
Meeting a loving God throughout my adult years, brought strength to my bones and healing to my soul. But, it took a very long time to undo the indoctrination of my past.
You see . . .
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.8Love never fails.
I Corinthians 13:4-7
Love always protects? It always hopes?
These were brand new concepts to me.
I played them out and practiced the concepts through loving my children. For sure, it was a training ground for me, but I was learning.
I learned about love through a great big God who never gave up on me. He walks beside me daily. In my night hours when I awake, He is the first thought I have now.
What a transition it has been.
Do you know the meaning behind tying a yellow ribbon? It was an important symbol of the binding ties between loved ones.
That’s me and God now! I plan to find a great big boulder at my next house and tie a great big ribbon symbolizing our bond.