The Healing Journey
by Ginny Mosby, MFTI

Many women who have experienced childhood sexual abuse find the idea of thinking about or talking about their past experiences of abuse extremely unpleasant (to put it mildly). The paradox, however, is that the impact of abuse is real whether we purposefully think about it or not. Childhood abuse impacts the way we interact with others and hinders our ability to be in close, connected relationships. While we avoid thinking and talking about the experience, we are, at the same time, suffering from the effects of the experience.

In her book Healing Trauma, Judith Herman writes, “The ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word unspeakable.” And so by the very nature of childhood abuse, the fact it takes place in secret, the fact that children are told not to speak of it and the reality that our society is loathe to discuss it, leaves us with almost insurmountable obstacles to embarking on a journey of healing.

Healing is not an easy journey, it is hard work. And yet when we choose to walk that journey with Christ, we know before we even take our first step that Christ has already claimed victory. Christ tells us himself, that he desires for us to have abundant life. In John 10:10b he says “I have come that they may havelife, and have it more abundantly.”

When we face our own woundedness, and accept Christ’s offer of healing, we allow Him to reclaim our lives and we deny Satan the opportunity to use that past experience as a stronghold to cripple us and prevent us from fulfilling God’s purpose in our lives.