Though my mother and father forsake me, The Lord will receive me.

            "...A whole new world opened up for me in college. I made lots of friends and found that I really enjoyed social activities. I opened up a lot and began to learn to accept myself for who I was. God brought several special friends into my life to be a source of new strength and comfort for me. Through them I was able to see that I was somebody special. It was like starting over with a clean slate.

            Although college life was a lot of fun, I still had to work out this whole forgiveness thing, particularly with mom. She wrote me a long letter after the first few weeks of being away at school, saying that she missed me and that “maybe [she] was a little too hard on [me] but [she] just wanted [me] to turn out right.” I suppose that was her way of apologizing to me. However, I already knew that it was not because of her iron fist that made me turn out right, but only what God did in my life. Perhaps it was also my determination to make something good out of my life and to rise above my bad childhood.
            I’ll be honest. It took a long time and was a huge step for me, but I was finally able to forgive everybody from my childhood who mistreated me. It took a lot of conscious effort and prayer on my part along with the Lord’s encouragement and grace. It was possible to have the victory over this situation and not allow those who mistreated me to reign victorious!"
            "...Normally, it is the case when someone hurts us deeply that they either do not realize the damage they caused or they get over it amazingly fast. They move on with their lives without a second thought. The problem with not forgiving them and holding onto the anger and hurt is that it will eventually destroy you, and only you, while they go on merrily with their lives. There is great power and healing in letting go of it and letting God be the one to deal with those who have hurt us. We will all be held accountable some day for how we treated others, and there will be a Day of Judgment and punishment. We need to trust that it will all be taken care of in the end by a just, perfect God.
            God’s Word says that He is our refuge, strength, comforter, deliverer, restorer, hope and help! He wants more than anything else to save us, and as Christians give us hope, restore us and give us abundant life. He does not want our past to hold us down and take control over our lives, nor does he want us to live in bitterness and unforgiveness. That is what Satan wants for us.
            I am not saying, however, it was easy because I had to spend a lot of time on my knees asking God to help me and give me the strength and ability to forgive those who hurt me all those years. I also had to consciously and deliberately work at seeing myself as God saw me, a wonderful and precious creation, not as others saw me. That was a necessary part of the healing process in order for me to ever move on and live the abundant life God wanted for me."
            "...By the grace of God, it is almost as if most of the damaging things in my childhood never happened! I was given the gift of a clean slate to start over. My life has taken a complete 180-degree turn from what it was back then. I give the Lord ALL the glory and praise for what He helped me overcome and how He has made something good out of my life despite the very rough start I had!
            I have realized over the past twenty-five years what wonderful blessings I would have missed out on had my life ended as I wanted it to in my teen years. He WAS right…there was a special purpose for my life!"      ~Amen

Excerpts taken from Chapter 1, "Struck Down, But Not Destroyed"

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