Life Challenges - Child Abuse Help

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Child Abuse Help - Thoughts, Feeling, and Beliefs
If you are seeking child abuse help, it matters significantly what you think, feel, and believe. If you are an adult survivor of child abuse, you may still be struggling with these things. Contrary to what society or anyone else has told you, thinking, feeling, and believing are the essence of your being, and vital to your mental health. We want to help you look into your troubling thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, and discover what lies beneath them.

Childhood sexual abuses, and other forms of abuse, have long-lasting ramifications. You may be asking, "Why me?" "How come God allowed this?" "What did I do?" Perhaps you are thinking, "I don't belong or fit in" or "No matter how real things may seem, are things truly real?"

As a child abuse victim, you may be experiencing feelings of anger, guilt, shame, unforgiveness, and you may not feel clean internally. Or you may feel that it's a burden to survive day to day. You may be questioning your belief system: Who do I believe? What do I believe? All this can be very confusing as you try to sort out beliefs about God, others, and yourself!
Child Abuse Help - Transformation
Child abuse help is available. Do you want to have that transformation? What happened to you as a child was totally unnatural, but there is a supernatural way to deal with it, to be healed, and to be transformed from the inside out. Trying to cope with life, your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs is complicated. There is no quick fix. Thoughts are still there, feelings are still present, and believing is difficult. God is there for you and He cares. He wants to heal you and give you freedom. Help is available for victims of child abuse. There is hope. Consider the following acrostic, written by a child abuse survivor:

I went from:
A - Anger: I am always angry and mad.
B - Belonging: I am feeling isolated. No one cares!
U - Understood: I am never understood.
S - Shame: I feel blame, shame, and guilt for everything.
E - Entrapped: There is no way out. I'm just surviving day by day.
D - Disgraced: There is no love and no honor. I'm humiliated.

To:
A - Anger: I now have righteous anger. I speak up for others, as well as myself.
B - Belonging: I belong to the family of God. I am loved!
U - Understood: I am totally accepted and cared for.
S - Shame: My guilt and shame are gone. I am forgiven in Jesus Christ. He took my shame on Himself.
E - Ensnared: I'm protected by God and His way.
D - Death: Jesus died so we can be reborn in Him. There is no more disgrace, but God's grace instead!


Child Abuse Help - Hope For You
It is important to understand that the heart (our entire being) is a divine creation and it is made up of our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. Proverbs 27:19 says, "As water reflects the face, so a man's heart reflects the man." When a child is abused, whether sexually or otherwise, it goes right to the core of his or her being, the heart! The Bible tells us that out of the heart flow all things. Mark 7:20-21 says, "…What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality…" Therefore, the heart is what is ultimately affected by abuse and it needs to be healed. Only through God and His Spirit working in us can true healing be accomplished. Philippians 2:13 says, "For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose."

If you are dealing with child abuse that occurred in your past, you are not alone. Recovery from abuse is possible. Jesus says, "Come, I will help you on your journey. There is hope and healing for a hurting heart."

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Child Abuse Help - Survivors Story
Throughout childhood, I was my brother's punching bag. All the frustration he built up from not having parents around, he took out on me. We grew up very angry and violent with each other and since I was smaller, I took the brunt of it. One day, my brother beat me up and I missed the bus. I had to call the neighbor and ask her if she would give me a ride to school. When I arrived at school, I went straight to the principal with big fat eye and huge bruise on my arm! I told him what was going on and he immediately called my mom saying, "This is a family issue and you need to deal with it." My mom promised me it wouldn't happen again, but of course it did. In response, I packed all my things up in 2 small bags, got on my bike, and took off.

The nearest large town was 28 miles away and that is a long ride on gravel roads and a bike! At the nearest paved road, I decided to ditch the bike and hitch hike into town. Eventually, a couple picked me up and I had my first experience smoking pot.

When the police picked me up, I was about 60 miles from home. I made up a story to the police that I had hit my head and didn't know where I was. Of course, they didn't buy it and brought me to the station where my dad was waiting for me. I tried to tell the officer what was going on at my house and why I didn't want to go home, but he sent me home anyway. My dad grabbed me by my throat at the top of the stairs and said, "Don't ever do that again!" My mom again promised me that no one would hit me or hurt me again. That turned out to be another lost promise.

My mom and I got into an argument one night and she slugged me in the face. At that time, I had an open conversation with God and said, "I don't want you right now. I have things of my own that I am going to pursue." I felt so let down by my parents and society that I turned inward and began down my path of self-destruction.

The years that followed were filled with drugs, alcohol, and abuse by the men in my life. I was not only experiencing abuse from others, but I was abusing myself. This continued until college when I hit bottom! Life was full of disappointment, loss, abuse, and failure. It was then that I cried out to God. He provided me with something that I had been missing for all those years! I had heard about Jesus Christ, but I never really knew Him personally. I came to understand that sin separated me from God and that Jesus Christ was the answer to my dilemma. He became my Savior and Lord that day! He became my security and protection.

Are you facing the regrets and hurts of childhood abuse? You are not destined to failure by the circumstances in your life-yesterday, today, or tomorrow. You are included in God's awesome plan of grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love. He is big enough to care about you with all your problems and scars. He is with you in every emotional battle you face. He will guide you to a greater understanding of who He is and how He can save you. He is the way, the truth, and the life in every situation you are facing.

God cares about you and He is intimately aware of what you are going through. He wants to help you forgive those who abused you. One of the hardest things for me to do was to make a decision physically, mentally, and emotionally to forgive the people that caused me these pains. Forgiveness played a vital role in my healing process. I had to forgive myself. The abuse was not my fault and I didn't cause it. Great healing came when I forgave others.

Take away the "I" factor of your life and make it a God factor! Watch the changes that come!!