Getting Free From Self Protection

Have you ever wondered why you do the things you do?

One day I  asked  my dad, “Why do you act the way you do?” and got in big trouble. It is probably something to ask yourself not others.

I grew up being  criticized and turned into a  person pointing out everything not done perfectly. The pain it caused others made me want to change but no matter how hard I tried I could not start out positive. If I opened my mouth it had to state the problem before I could get around to the good stuff.

God wants us to cover mistakes not expose them, so I have tried  so hard to change, but can’t. It probably has something to do with self protection, if I hurt you before you hurt me all will be good.

When I was about 50 I started a counseling program but my mind had everything locked up believing it was too difficult to face what happened so I was sent to a specialty counselor. I talk about it in the story, “The Picture that Ruled My Life.”

Self protection had its place getting me  through a very hard season of my life.  When I didn’t have a place to deal with what happened  it took on a life of its own and Kept me from my LIFE.

God helped me to TRUST HIM!

The more I could trust God  I didn’t need to self protect. God turned my fear into a strength and confidence to go to places I have always wanted to go but couldn’t. I finally was able to go to the Joyce Meyer Women’s Conference meeting my cousin who I had not seen since I was 7. A desire I had for over ten years.

With success I signed up and, drove to Kentucky to volunteer at a Joyce Meyer Conference. I was able to do the whole experience such as checking into the motel, ordering food, eating alone, and finding where I go to do my volunteering. All the tings I could not do when my self protection kept me hiding at home afraid of the world.

I have been growing and changing the last 10 years and life is very different and Good! I could not have written this blog without facing and healing from everything my seven year old self was protecting me from. I will also say that at age 59 I was able for the first time compliment my daughter on what she did and not offer one comment about what was left undone. God is so very Good!

LIFE IS GOOD! LEARN TO ENJOY IT!

LOVE AND TRUST THE GOD WHO CREATED YOU AND WANTS TO HEAL YOUR BROKEN HEARTS. AMEN!

 

The Picture that Ruled My Life

As far back as I can remember every time I shut my eyes this picture showed up with a song. I could not picture anything else as I didn’t know we were created to see pictures in our head. This picture is the only one I ever saw and it kept me company since I was a child.

Probably the first time I told anyone about it was the year we moved to Jacksonville. I was mopping the floor to clean up after our one year old daughter. While mopping, I heard a song float through the air. Dropping to my knees, clinging to the mop, I heard this wailing cry rise up from deep inside my soul.

My daughter ran to get her father; finding me, he wanted to know what  was causing such distress.

I said, “That song you were playing was the song that played in my head all my life. It is connected to a picture. In the picture I am sitting out front of a beautiful green house with shutters and sidewalk with an embankment  where I a 7 year old sit with 5-6 teenage boys. One of the boys had a guitar and is playing that song.”

Bart threw the CD away so he could never play that album from the 60’s and 70’s again. The song left my brain at that point and I have no idea what it is.

The next time the picture came into focus was when my daughter was in the 6th grade and had a part in the high school play. She asked Permission to go to the cast party.

The next afternoon I tried to take a nap but that same guttural cry rose from my belly and I had no idea why! I called my husband and he came home and took me to the church to see the pastor.

The pastor took one look at me and offered to get a counselor.

I responded, “I will go through this with Jesus!”

The interesting thing that happened was a dark tunnel opened up in my brain to the right. I knew that if I looked down that tunnel I would find out what happened, but I feared that I wouldn’t be able to return, so I never looked.

Years later I was teaching a Bible study at church with some very God fearing women. We needed to move the class to a room that gave me the willies. Fear and dread filled me and I told these women about the picture and the tunnel. They prayed for me and the tunnel disappeared and the dread left with it. God is so Good.

The next time it came into view we were in a new church and I was going through some heart ministry/counseling. All the questions I couldn’t answer were tied to that picture so the Pastor set up and appointment with, “Set Free Ministries” in Grand Rapids.

It was a 6 hour meeting to learn about things and confess and renounce evil influences in my life. They exposed lies but one I didn’t believe was a lie. The time was up so they set up a second appointment which was unusual.

I had grown some. The first visit I needed someone to drive me, because fear controlled me so completely. But this second visit I drove myself.  I now understood the thing I disagreed about, as a lie. God did something in me.

At the second meeting they set up to do a prayer intervention. First she asked me to describe the picture, then just as I started she said,”We need to pray first.!” She prayed.

The picture left my eyes! I was a bit perturbed. Maybe even angry!

I could remember the picture so I started to tell her what it looked like.

She asked, “Who is at the door welcoming you inside?”

I don’t know.

What are you wearing?”

I try different things on in my mind and a “white dress feels right.”

Go inside and describe the room.

I am outside in a hall and go into a room with two doors and no windows and sit crisscross-applesauce on the floor in the middle of the room, something I haven’t thought of for 50 years.

What is behind the other door.

All I see are skeletons and sculls floating in the air. Later I realize people in robes and masks come from the door and circle around the room with me in the center.

What happens next. I am picked me up and put me on the altar.

I see a light.

She asks about the window. I said there was no window. The woman who is praying while we talk says ,”She said it was a room with no window.” So what is the light? ( Years later God shows me He was there with me)

This is as far as I could go. They said the door is open so God can guide you through the process.

As soon as I arrived home the devil told me a lie that none of that ever happened.  I started to believe it but then I realized they way I react to so many things come from this. The devil was lying to me! It all happened.

The next year I am helping my mom after her surgery and ask tell her about the picture. She says, Your father is a very tall person. He also wanted to try anything crazy just to do something different. So I had to wrestle with that for a few days to believe my dad could do that.

Sometime in the next year or so in church while I am Worshiping God fully, God drops a picture in my mind. My dad taking me from the altar and hanging me upside down on an upside down cross.

When I told my husband he said, “That explains everything!”

Sometime later I ask God, “What is the big deal with being hung upside down on a cross? I know it is a spiritual thing but is that it?”

God showed me a picture of two boys on top of me at once.

I said, “That is enough! I don’t need to see anymore!”

WHAT I DO KNOW IS JESUS KNOWS JUST THE RIGHT TIME AND THE MOST DELICATE WAY TO DO THE HEALING IF WE JUST SEEK HIM AND DO WHAT HE GIVE US TO DO!