Looking back on this past March, it had to be one of my family's toughest months in a long time. My wife had a miscarriage at the beginning of the month and then towards the end of the month while at a friend's house, my son suffered a febrile seizure, which was a terrifying experience. Now that I've had time to process what occurred and walked through these moments again I came to a decision point.
Do I let the trauma from the experience bring regression or progression to my life and in my walk with Christ?
Meaning, do I take the negative emotions from the experiences and let them determine my actions moving forward? or Do I take the scars from the trauma and use them as motivation to become better?
Many of us can take these experiences and let them change who we are negatively. After the seizure, my wife and I could easily have become overprotective and tried to micromanage my son's life so that he could be "safe".
I have a strong belief that our experiences which are unique to every individual are actually for you and not against you. The writer Jeanne Guyon in her book Experiencing The Depths of Jesus Christ states, "You must believe that the circumstances of your life, that is, every minute of your life, as well as the whole course of your life - anything, yes, everything that happens - have come to you by His will and by His permission." Now I want to preface that I don't believe that the evil things we encounter are from God at all. I would say to use this as a lens so that you can find the light at the end of the tunnel and see that "what the enemy meant for evil God is turning for your good".
like the old saying "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger", but I would add "and makes you wiser". I believe there are some practical ideas that if we hold to and use as our lens of processing we can use the experience to progress us in maturity.
MOVING FORWARD
We must understand that if the Holy Spirit never "leaves us nor forsakes us", which means, He was there with you the whole time. Maybe you couldn't see Him at the moment but trust me He was there. Pray and invite Him to show you where He was during the trauma. This will deepen your relationship with Him and will bring true healing in your heart so that shame and guilt will have no room to take root.
The one thing the enemy wants us to do is to go through a traumatic experience and then run into our caves and hide from the world because of what happened to us. The last thing he wants you to do is take your story and turn it into a testimony.
We are not the only ones who have gone through what we have gone through and we won't be the last. If we take our experiences and share our stories with no shame we can use them to bring FREEDOMÂ to many who are caught in the same problems.
Our lives are not meant to be perfect, our lives are a complex mix of emotions, experiences, and values. No one else is like you in the world, and your experiences shape who you become. The amazing thing is that even through all your experiences what won't change is WHO YOU ARE & WHOSE YOU ARE.
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