Goodbye SHAME – Hello FREEDOMSample

You No Longer Have A Secret. You Have A Story.

My mom shared her story with me the other day, finally. She is eighty-four.

For the first time, she shared that it was her much older sister’s husband who molested her. She had never shared it. I was molested in the same area where she had grown up. Secrets beget secrets, abuse breeds abuse. Statistics tell us that if we do not release the secrets they will play out in the next generation. Just as the Bible tells us, sins of the father to the third or fourth generation. If you believe that as truth, then you must agree, the greatest gift you can give your children or grandchildren is your releasing of your story. It allows your entire legacy to relaunch with newfound freedom. Nothing unspoken, shame not controlling the narrative, power to change legacies.

You no longer have a secret; you have a story. Pray and ask Jesus to show you a safe person in your life to share your story with. Someone that loves you and will just listen, just speaking the unspoken is the first step towards freedom. Jesus stands ready to pass along the keys to open doors of growth, healing, and purpose. Let him guide you.

I would love to give you permission (often for the first time in many lives) to “speak the unspeakable”.In doing so, you will change the trajectory of your life, discover your purpose for impacting others, and become a powerful key to ending a Spirit of silence and brokenness that’s threatening to tear the contemporary church and maybe even your family apart.

Some are running to the light, sadly others are running deeper underground. The next generation is watching. Generational secrets are bubbling up. Predators are honing their tactics to coerce your children and grandchildren in the privacy of their own bedrooms via phones and smart devices. The stakes are rising as children’s neuropathways are being rewired at an alarming rate through images and portals we place in their hands. We’re paving a direct highway to addiction and shame, now more than ever your voice matters. Share your story, so a future generation won’t have their own.

Are you ready to learn to speak up and live free? I pray so, as the move of God is starting to not so quietly transform churches, families, and communities.

It may have started as a secret, but it ends with you.

Reflect:

Have family patterns of abuse been shared with you? Are you aware of generational patterns of addiction? Do you have one family member that seems to know more than others and is very open?

Are you worried about your children or grandchildren? If they lived their life out as you have would you be happy for them?

Are you ready to share your story, are there parts you never told anyone? Can you prepare your story not in an accusatory way, but rather as a storyteller? How would you tell it if you had written a book?

Call to Action

Read Groomed for further steps.

If you need a confidential place to share and would like to explore more resources, visit www.TheFoundationUnited.org.