Skip to main content

Confession #54 - Once Upon A Time,,,

I am so excited to announce that today is Confessions of a Dirty Christian Woman's one year anniversary!  It was a  year ago today I published my first blog post "Confession #1 - Why I'm Dirty".  And a year later God still sees fit to use this dirty creature to display is incredible beauty.  One of the ways God has used me is through submitting my testimony to Christian Women's Voice Magazine and it was published in the July/Aug edition!

I was so excited to get the magazine in the mail the other day and read my first officially published work!

This is my testimony:

As a child, like many women, I found myself wanting to re-write my story into a fairy-tale.  I found myself dreaming, wishing on stars, searching for Princes, and waiting around for my Fairy-Godmother to Bibbidy Bobbidy Boo me into a better, happier life… 

I was a very shy and quiet child.  A strong insecurity had a hold on me for a long time. At age eight I was molested by a family member and it took me ten years before I told anyone and when I did I was told that it was my own fault.

In my mid-late teens my mother made several attempts at suicide, happily unsuccessful ones, but with each new attempt my heart died more and more. I found myself trying to end my life a few times as well.  I suffered a nervous breakdown in my senior year in high school. Then a year later I was date raped, and then sexually assaulted in the work place.  This agony was a catalyst that sent me reeling into an over-eating addiction that I continue to struggle with today. 

Despite it all God was there every step of the way getting me back on track whenever I’d stumble or fall on my face. He sent Godly people to me all through my life reminding me that I was destined to be His. It took 27 years but once He captured my heart, well there was no going back. It was then that I stopped writing the story and gave God control over my life. When that happened, this retrospective of pain became a beautiful masterpiece. An amazing love story of Joanne and her Savior the Prince of Peace who has rescued her from the perils of evil and given her a promised “Happily ever after” ending; an eternity in heaven with Him.  He's taken this insecure, hopeless child and transformed her into a confident, strong, and loving Christian woman.  I have forgiven those who have wronged me and learned to show them the love of Christ.  The Bible reminds us, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33


I’ve been married to my wonderful husband for seventeen years and five years ago we adopted our amazing daughter.  Additionally, God’s calling on my life to minister to the hearts of women has been an unbelievable new chapter in my book.

God knows your story too. Psalm 136:16 says, “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” He knows each chapter and page, He knows how long your book is and He’s read the plot. Everyone’s book begins with “Once Upon a Time” with no guarantee of a happy ending, but when we make Jesus our Lord and savior that all changes.  Let Jesus Christ become the Prince of your real-life fairy-tale and re-write you’re story’s ending “And they lived happily ever after.”


So far this blog has been an amazing journey with God and I pray that you all have been as blessed by reading it as much as I've been by writing it.  Please take a moment to revisit one of your favorite posts and leave a comment or if it's your first time here search through the posts that speak to you and leave a comment.  I'd love to hear how God is working in your life through Confessions.  Many blessings to you all!

Dear Heavenly Father, Lord thank you for using this dirty creature to shine your beauty.  Father I pray that you would continue to use me to help your girls.  I pray for my sisters in Christ, some who have amazing journeys of their own to share, Father give them the courage to share their testimonies by telling others about what Jesus has done for them so that we may continue the cycle of healing and reconciliation to you Dear Lord.  In Jesus' name I pray. AMEN

BTW - You can allow God to use you to minister to women by sharing your testimony with Christian Woman's Voice magazine by emailing your story in 500 words or less to cwvinfo@christianwomensvoice.org . 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Confession #87: The Golden Buzzer

Today while visiting a friend, she asked if I had seen this amazing girl on AGT. I told her that I don’t watch that show but after she described this woman, I said wait, is that Nightbirde? She said yes and played the clip. This gorgeous woman with a song in her heart put herself out there in front of the entire world to compete. Then she reveals she has been suffering from this horrific cancer in her lungs and spine and liver, and she only has a 2% chance of survival. Her song an original she wrote called, “It’s okay.”  I recognized the description of her because, ironically, this was the second introduction I had to the amazing Nightbirde. Just the day before I had stumbled across her one of her blog posts. An ode to the Lord that she praises God amid her pain. Coincidence? NEVER!  Recently, I have had the stuffing knocked out of me. Taking blows has become somewhat routine in my life and this current situation is one of the more powerful ones. Thankfully, I do n...
Post a Comment
Read more

Confession #83 "It Ain't Over, Till it's Over"

You know the famous saying by the baseball great Yogi Berra, “It ain’t over till it’s over?”  Well in God’s economy, it’s true!   In Luke 18: 1 it says, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.”   In 1999 when my husband and I purchased our home, we had no children and the plan for them was years off, so we didn’t think much about school zoning.  Honestly, we thought by the time we would have to be concerned with schools we would have moved into a larger home in a better area.  After all, this was our starter home.   Twenty-one years later and by the grace of God, we are still here.  And that school zoning problem has been an issue since our daughter became school aged.  Rather than send her to our local zoned schools we opted for charter schools.  Knowing we could not afford to send her to a private, or Christian school that was the best we could give her.  I beli...
Post a Comment
Read more

Confession #21 - Cheap Thrills Mean Nothin'

If you grew up in the 80's like I did you may remember a song by Planet Patrol called Cheap Thrills.  Cheap Thrills mean nothing...they will tear your soul apart .  Well I've learned this lesson the hard way.  The school I grew up in taught me if somethings broke don't fix it just buy a new one.   Cheap Thrills .  Spend money on lottery tickets.  Cheap Thrills .  Upgrade your car every few years.  Cheap Thrills .  New Clothes for every vacation.  Cheap Thrills etc.... Growing up in that kind of environment conditioned me to think that money was the only thing that mattered.   I never really put a value on money or how much stuff cost.  If I wanted something I bought it. Now that kind of philosophy might lead one to believe that I grew up in a family with means.  Not so; I grew up in a family that had nothing, but, good credit.  We could pay if off on a cc or make monthly payments so we'...
Post a Comment
Read more