Guest Blog Post by Daniele: "Freed From the Shame of Childhood Sexual Abuse"

Chris Rice Cooper 

caccoop@aol.com

https://www.facebook.com/car.cooper.7

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Guest Blog Post by Daniele:

Freed from the Shame of Childhood Sexual Abuse

"We will never again say 'Our gods’ to what our own hands have made, for in You the fatherless find compassion." Hosea 14:3 NIV

Once again, my heart was experiencing the familiar pain that runs so deep.

I cried out to God in prayer and the Lord led me to read Beth Moore's: Praying God’s Word Day by Day Devotional.

“Lord, according to Your Word, what a man desires or craves deeply is unfailing love (Prov. 19:22). YOU are the only one capable of perpetually unfailing love. HELP me to understand that my DEEP cravings for someone to love me with that kind of love were meant to be satisfied in YOU alone."  Beth Moore from Praying God’s Word Day By Day A Year of Devotional Prayers.  

Then in January, 2016, God led me to the Bible study by Jennifer Rothschild: HOSEA: Unfailing Love Changes Everything!

"I will return her vineyards to her and transform the Valley of Trouble into a DOOR of HOPE. She will give herself to me there, as she did long ago when she was young, when I freed her from her captivity, in Egypt." Hosea 2:15 NLT
Just like Gomer in the book of Hosea, I too experienced things at the hands of my father and other relatives that no little girl should experience.  

For 50 years I suffered from SHAME and turned to unhealthy coping methods, including alcohol and misusing prescription drugs, to numb the pain. 

I thank the Lord Jesus for being the Door of Hope to me through His servants in my church’s Women's Ministry, Jennifer Rothschild’s Hosea: Unfailing Love Changes Everything!, Revision Christian Counseling services (https://www.revisionchristiancounseling.com), author Nicole Bromley, through her books: Hush and Breathe, author Marnie Ferree, through her book: No Stones, Women Redeemed From Sexual Addiction, 

Plumb’s CD Exhale, and the circle of friends, including my husband and four adult children, who have been lifting me in prayer as I journeyed off the map to be free from the power that the childhood abuse had over my life.
Together, they helped me to realize that the secret and the shame of childhood sexual abuse are NOT mine to bear; I was the victim.   God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit have FREED me from the POWER that the ABUSE held over me!! I am now the victor!

Liberation from: 50 years of bondage to shame that was not mine.

Liberation from: self-hatred and self-loathing.

Liberation from: a sexual stronghold sin.

Liberation from: unhealthy coping methods.

Liberation from: rage and foul language, hatred and un-forgiveness.

Liberation from: flashbacks.

The last question in the HOSEA: Unfailing Love Changes Everything! asks:

What one thing do you value most from your study?

God's UNFAILING LOVE for me!

I am LOVED.

I am ACCEPTED.

I am COMPLETE.
I am KNOWN.

I LACK NOTHING!

God has brought about the RESTORATION of my Child Heart!

But the best news of all is the relationship I now have with my Heavenly Father!!

Even though I’ve had a relationship with Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit since I was 15 years of age, I never knew God as Father.

As you can imagine, my image of “Father” was tainted by the actions of my earthly father. Therefore, I could not comprehend God as “Father”. I would argue with Jesus and say, “Jesus, I trust You and I trust Your Holy Spirit, but if Your Father is anything like my father, then I DO NOT want to have anything to do with HIM.” 

Then in March, 2016, the Holy Spirit helped me to see in John 14:9 that the Father is like JESUS!  In John 14:9, Jesus said: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”  

The Lord Jesus Christ has restored the relationship between me and my Heavenly Father!!! 

The Lord has also put a song back in my heart!

After a long hiatus, I am again playing my guitar while singing songs of praise and worship.

The first song the Lord gave me was most fitting: "Good, Good Father."  And that He is!!

One afternoon in the summer of 2015, when my journey began, I feared that I had failed once too often. I cried out in repentance to the Lord, and Jesus tenderly spoke these words over me, “He, who the Son sets free, is free indeed.” John 8:36

To paraphrase Jennifer Rothschild: “He has pulled me to Himself with cords of love and replaced the yoke of slavery with a garment of a 
beloved bride!” 

I am embracing my new Identity: Daniele, the Treasured Daughter of God our Father, chosen and dearly loved.  My Heavenly Father’s Unfailing LOVE really does change everything!

Here is the link to emergency hotline and other helpful resources in the St. Louis area: https://www.startherestl.org/hotlines--websites.html.