A few weeks ago, Kaleb had to have his blood drawn for his 3-year checkup. The actual event of drawing blood from a little who you love so much is hard because you know it is necessary, but you still don’t want to intentionally inflict pain on them. It was hard to see his little face of shock as his dad held him still and then see the little tears roll down his face as he cried in pain of what just had happened. But then with a big hug and kiss from us, and a few pieces of candy (you do what is necessary ha ha) to sooth the hurt, he was better… Until later that day when he woke up from his nap and saw the bandage still on his arm. Suddenly, he remembered the pain and stopped using his arm altogether saying that it hurt. We knew that it didn’t really hurt, but it was the memory of the hurt that he was experiencing. We knew, that we needed to take off the bandage to help get him over this visual reminder of the pain from earlier that day. But the tape they used was so sticky that is was hard to remove. We used baby oil, water, whatever we could think of to try and make the removal less painful. Eventually we had to just pull it off. Afterwards, we continued with our day and about 30 minutes later he totally forgot about his arm “hurting” and returned to normal.
Since that day, I keep going back to that example that we all experienced and can’t help but relate it to our own hurts. Sometimes, when we have been hurt or sick, we act like Kaleb. We keep remembering the pain that happened in a past hurt or sickness and it keeps us in a state of victim. We walk around with that bandage on giving reasons on excuses why we can’t move on. “But I’ve been hurt” you might say. “How can I move on and do X, Y, and Z, if I have been hurt?” The answer is simple…. You need to start by taking the bandage off the wound. This may be hard to do, and you may need to use multiple resources like we did with Kaleb to remove it. Maybe that means forgiving the person who hurt you or taking responsibility for your part. Maybe it is starting to do exercises to recover from an injury. Maybe it means removing stuff from your life that continues to cause you to stay in this state of victim. This could be poor influences in your life, or habits you have formed that are unhealthy, or even the thoughts you have in your head that only you know about.
Once the bandage is removed, just like we told Kaleb that he is ok there is no more pain, we need to all decide to speak words of life to ourselves and others. Tell them to yourself in a mirror, write them in your journal or on paper and post them where you can see them. Then, also begin to build up others in the same way.
On this day before Thanksgiving, when all of us gather as family we can be thankful that our awesome God is the great healer of all our hurts. He loves every one of us the same and He wants us to be healthy and whole and full of His light instead of being held down by past hurts that keep us in a state of victim. I encourage you in this season of Thanksgiving to take time to ask God to show you your past hurts and THANK Him for healing you so that you can walk in freedom and joy.
Happiest Thanksgiving to all of you. We are grateful for your prayers and support today and every day!
Bless and affectionately praise the Lord, O my soul,
And all that is [deep] within me, bless His holy name.
Bless and affectionately praise the Lord, O my soul,
And do not forget any of His benefits;
Who forgives all your sins,
Who heals all your diseases;
Who redeems your life from the pit,
Who crowns you [lavishly] with lovingkindness and tender mercy;
Who satisfies your years with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the [soaring] eagle.
The Lord bless you, and keep you [protect you, sustain you, and guard you];
Psalms 103:1-5 AMP
