What’s your story?
Do you wish you could edit out some of the not-so-nice chapters?
Patsy Clairmont explains why it’s important to embrace the whole story of our lives.
Click the play button below (far right) to hear what Patsy has to say in this audio message:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Comments
Thank you, patsy!
How is someone who lost a healthy, happy , live embracing and only daughter at the age of 22 supposed to do that??
For Brigit, I am so sorry for your loss. I lost my sweet, precious, innocent daughter also. She was killed in a car accident. I am clinging to Romans 8:28 throughout the entire grieving process. God has brought good and is continuing to restore and redeem all I have lost every day. Trust Jesus to heal your heart and emotions. I promise He will. He is extra close and available to the brokenhearted. Choose to trust Him. He is a good God. He has given me a powerful testimony to share with others. I guess He thought you and I would be strong enough to overcome this incredible heartache and continue giving God the glory.
Losing a child, no matter how young or old she or he may be, is without a doubt one of the most heartbreaking and tragic experiences a parent can endure, more so an only child. It is so beyond the imagination and comprehension that our minds and hearts are just not wired or programmed to deal with a child passing before we do.
My 44 yr old daughter who was living with us passed away almost 4 yrs ago, I know your pain. And contrary to common belie
f, time does not heal all things anymore than it will replace a lost limb. But time and God’s grace does dull and ease the pain and enables you to go on and even feel joy and peace in all things.
o dear sister, I am so sorry for the loss in your daughters life. I believe Jesus weeps with you. Allow yourself to Mourn and you will be comforted…and if it is God’s will, he can use the brokeness of your heart to help others with the same affliction. What satan means for harm, He brings beauty for ashes, strength for fear. Cling to His word daily… we are wrestling against evil daily. Jesus will prevail and it will be for eternity then, PTL. Thanks for being real. I lift you up to Jesus in prayer…Hugs sister.
Sorry, my message was a bit lengthy, wasn’t sure it would all post. Just wanted to mention an amazing Christian program,
GriefShare.org that has many local groups sponsored by many churches nationwide, that helps those going through the journey of grief of a lost loved one. Please check their site, hopefully one is near you. Also, if you google: Youtube-Griefshare there are several short videos that are sample segments of the program.
May the God of compassion, comfort and mercy hold you close, direct your path and lead you to others who will walk with you through the valley of death.
Lord please let Birgit get this message
For Birgit…You can’t. Your life is so devestated and your strength will be gone. You have to grieve until your next breath comes from outside yourself. This is when you realize you have become a lovely reflection of your dear daughter. Her beauty and love are forever a part of you. You think your hold on Christ has gone but in truth He has held on to you. You will know your strength is His and then you can do amazing things…please hold on for one more day….then do it again…and again…so your precious girl lives on. Live her love.
We lost my beautiful daughter-in-law to a traffic accident over 8 years ago, leaving my son a widower and my grandson without a mother. She was like a daughter to me and we grieved with her family as one. I asked a friend who had lost her daughter at the hands of a mental patient with a gun how she coped with such raw and open wounds to the heart. Amanda told me, with her hand in front of her face, that ‘at first, it is right here. You can’t see anything else but your pain and loss. In time, it moves farther away’ – she moved her hand a few inches from her face – ‘and it never goes completely away, but you will be able to see what is around it, beyond it, and you can move again.’
She is a very wise woman…on the day of the funeral, my own mother suffered a heart attack, which sent her into a health tailspin from which she never recovered. Five months later, I spent my 48th birthday at Mom’s bedside; she died the next day and I was there to help her pass over into the arms of our Lord and her waiting family members. It was a very spiritual experience that reinforced my beliefs about dying and the hereafter. Knowing my Mom and Rebecca and all those who have gone before me are waiting to welcome me when God calls me home makes those losses bearable.
Take time to grieve, however much time you need, doing what makes you feel better. For me, it was leaving flowers on their graves every Saturday for more than a year; one day, I just didn’t feel the need anymore. Now I leave flowers on their birthdays and special occasions.
I am so sorry for your loss and hope my words might bring you comfort. Your daughter is with you always and some day she will welcome you home to eternal life with our Lord. God bless you.
Thank you. I am really going through a rough time right now and this has brought me a little hope even though I still feel like there is none. At least there is a spark of it.
Patsy,
I’ve attended several WOF conferences and have always brought back a Word from the Lord from the ladies’ perspective. Thank you for sharing on-line. This chapter in my life is one of the most difficult.
I have embraced my story, it took me many many years, 20 or so and when I finally let God heal all of me, is when I grew the most. I am more free today than I ever was! God has allowed me to use my story to reach other women who were raped or molested. I never wanted to talk about these issues and I know now that was Satans way of keeping me from totally being free in Christ. My story is on a website at anchoredlove.org. Thanks for your encouraging words.
I have a menal block on my story and have asked God to let me see what happened but he hasn’t entered my prayers. He protected me when I was little but I only have part of my story. My family rewrites everything when I start to ask questions It’s all a secret and I have been shut up.
SO true…thanks for sharing!
Thank you – I have struggled for a long time with sharing my whole story. Parts of it are gritty but I believe God would want them there to show His wonderful grace. But there have been others who have had me censor it…what do you think about that?
Dear Deb, I found that the best thing is to go ahead and write the entire story of your life. This is what I had done in order to pull out and heal from all that was stuck within me. Then as God healed me from so much of the stuff, I felt moved to revise parts of the “Life Story” covering and protecting others…for love covers others and does not bring them harm. Hope this aids you a bit.
So true! I had a hard time deciding what to share and what not to share in the book I wrote and edited out some stuff. In hindsight, I can see how important some events were that God used along the way of my life that I took out because I am protective and tried not to hurt anyone’s feelings as best I could. In the end, I hope I wrote it well. I am not as good a writer as I am a thinker and if I stayed stuck, I thought I would never get done writing my book lol! And then I would never get to tell what wonderful things happened that led to our family adopting our beautiful daughter from Ukraine or share my new dream in hopes many more orphans will be saved from spending the rest of their lives in mental institution because the world doesn’t know they are there! PS, Our “little blond angel” turns “8″ today! We are so thankul she is our daughter and joined our family for this, her third birthday home!
Hello, It was at a WOF concert that God first spoke to my heart about telling my story in a book!I have alot written out but mostly I drag my feet or get roadblocks for months. Today,you are an answer to my prayer—I don’t have a good story but its my story and I know now He doesn’t want me to edit out the bad parts BUT tell them from the mts for all who have been sexually abused to hear + heal.I just need a coach! Thank you so much for being that inspiration today.
Dear Kyle, If you need a writing coach/accountability partner I would be more than willing to assist you via emails. I have already wrote my entire “life story”. It is one of the best ways that anyone could heal from the wounds of their past.
I to believe the whole story of ones life should be grasp. It is so hard to tell the whole story sometimes. When seeing where you have come from and where God has brought you through helps you as well as those still struggleing. I have a story and I would love to write it, but that is so hard for I do not know how to even start to write and express. Maybe before I die I will write a book on my life and show that there is healing only through our Lord.
I think that we should all embrace ourselves no matter what happens within our lives. Everything that happens is a part of our history that we can learn from past mistakes and not make them again and go forward in life with happiness in our hearts!
I had the opportunity to share my deepest, darkest secret with my daughter almost 3 years ago. We were both grieving/rejoicing the adoption of her daughter. We both knew it was the right thing for both my daughter and her baby, but greived her departure from our lives. I was able to explain to her how much better her choice had been, no matter how hard it was, than mine (to have an abortion) at her age. Then this Christmas I had the opportunity to share my secret once again, this time with my step-daughter who was punishing herself for killing her own unborn babies. I was able to share with her how God had restored me after my abortion, and how He had given me back 100 fold what I had thrown away.
It is in revealing our faults and our wrongs that we can sometimes reach the hearts of others when nothing else could have. In both circumstances, it has brought us closer together than we’ve ever been before, and I thank God for creating beauty from ashes.
At a time in one’s life you cannot share your most deepest sorrow and pain with other’s but knowing that there is a God who loves us inspite of our foolishness, mistakes and difficulties no matter what our circumstance’s that His loves for us is not favored. My life has been a journey, one that I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to walk down, but through my pain and suffering, I knew without a doubt that Jesus was the one who was carring me through all my pain, and rejection of my family, and most of all the rejection from a Mother who gave birth to me. My day’s are filled with thanks and prais to a loving and compassinate God who first love me before I knew myself, and then I look upon the sacrifices that I had made for a Mother who never loved me and a family who doesn’t love me either, but when I come back to the love of my God our God my life is filled with praise and thanks. I say today to my Father oh God thank you for your love and your grace and it’s only through your grace and it alone that has sustain me in all of my life and for that I say thank you Father God thank you in the name of your son Jesus. I love you for it is your surly and goodness, and mercy which has followed me all of my day’s and your love that has kept me on solid ground.
Patsy do you sell the ink stamp “Tea Maker” “Steeped in His word infused with His love Sweetened by His spirit stirred from above” Someone in our church had given me a card with that on it and signed by you? I would like to use it at a women’s tea that I doing in a Nursing Home.
for Sandy, I to had a mental block about my past. and was always blaming my self. I was abused sexually, and it took me so many years to see it wasn’t my fault. I did this with a councilor,{Mentor at my church]. a lot of churches have some one to help you. and Mine did, It was hard and it hurt saying it out loud, but also start moving in the right direction toward healing. your memories are their but, some reson you can’t say them out loud, talking to a spiritual mentor will help,and be dione in a bible based,God loving way. I’m praying for you.Love in Christ..Essy