The REAL Me
As REAL as it is:
Scars are significant in my story. Some are seen; others are deeper and sear the soul. But, all are used by God as I share His grace in my life. When I was in first grade, I got my foot wrapped around the cord of an industrial coffee maker. The hot liquid caused 3rd degree burns on fifty percent of my right leg, requiring many doctor visits and hospitalization. In preparation for the final step of healing of my leg through skin graphs, I remember the agony and severe pain as the nurse would rip the gauze along with the dead skin off my leg each hour the night before my surgery. As a child, I couldn’t understand how getting my burns cleansed and scraped until my leg was raw could be healing in the long run. But the process was very necessary. Later in life, I went through the same thing with the invisible scars that were deep within. As I went through the heartache of learning that boyfriends, husbands, degrees, professions, businesses and even “doing good,” were not satisfying in the way I’d hoped, I felt scar after scar become part of my being. As I lived in regret with some of my choices, I finally realized that God wanted to deal with all of it. I couldn’t hide any of the ugly things; He wanted the whole of my past and my willingness to be raw before Him, while trusting Him to make it beautiful. And He has. My life verse (Isaiah 58:11) reflects His work in me: “And the LORD will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.” Only through God’s redemptive process could I go from feeling so burned, to desiring growth in the garden of girls God had placed in my life. Through Get REAL inChrist, I want to show girls how to give God all their scarred places and allow Him, through His love and grace, to create beauty, especially in those scars that serve as reminders of our wounds and His ongoing healing. I’m grateful that God has brought me joy in a blended family that includes my husband Tim and three children. We currently live in the Indianapolis area, but I love travelling to Get REAL inC events because I truly believe that in Christ, "it is better to build a strong girl than to repair a broken woman." I LOVE FLAMINGOS! My senior year of high school when asked for the yearbook what I was going to do after school I said "Move to Florida and have a flamingo farm." I still haven't moved to Florida but I do have a "flamingo farm." So, although I had no idea back then of what God was about to do in my life, He knew.REALly Interesting:
Through Sisters in Scriptures I talk about how we are like the beautiful pink flamingo; just like the flamingo gets its beauty & radiant pink color from the nutrients it takes in. We get our true beauty from God's Word. When we take it in and allow it to transform us, we have His inner and outer beauty.
