Your Voice Matters

About two weeks ago I received a message in my Facebook inbox from a woman I had never met.   She was asking me how I created some of the pins I had posted on Pinterest for Mary DeMuth's book launch team.  (As I mentioned in my last post, I was blessed to be chosen to be on Mary's launch team for her latest book that is due out in October. The Wall Around Your Heart).

As it turns out, this woman was also an author, getting ready to launch a new book. So...being the book lover that I am and intrigued by the title of her book, I offered my graphic design services for peanuts and an advance copy of her book so that I could read it and mine the depths for great quotes.  She took the bait! ;-) Rats! I should have asked for chocolate!!

And the rest, as they say, is history...or rather her-story.  I have a  beautiful new friend that I want to introduce to you. Her name is Jo Ann Fore. I won't go into the details of her life but you can find out more about her here...Jo Ann's Story.  I now know her as a woman who cares deeply about her friends, new and old. She is a woman with a burning passion to reach out to those who are hurting and broken. Her heart is to see them healed and whole. I am so very thankful that God has allowed our paths to cross. 

Now I want to introduce you to her book When A Woman Finds Her Voice.  No...not the book itself, at least not yet.  But to the things within my heart that have been awakened in the reading of her words.  

I am now a part of a community of women who have a desire to use our unique voice, each one of us,  to usher in hope and healing in the lives of other women. Those women whose voices have been stifled...from shame, threat, pain, fear...or whatever has caused them to shut off a part of themselves to the world, to their own family and friends.  Many in this community want to reach out because we have found healing for ourselves. Healing for wounds that were buried...buried just beneath the surface for some, and very deep within the spirit for others...soul wounds. 

I haven't quite figured out exactly how I am going to participate in this particular journey...though I have been reaching out to women for many years sharing stories from my own past...stories of brokenness and redemption. I have experienced so much throughout my life...the good, the bad, and the ugly.  I witnessed the sexual abuse of my childhood best friend. No child should ever have to experience the betrayal and abuse that she endured...and as a young girl, I didn't even know how to put words to scenes I had witnessed.  I have experienced loss through the death of many family members and friends through the years...beginning with my father when I was just 10 years old, my very best friend in high school...and more death...continuing on throughout my life. My husband and I walked, cried, and prayed through two traumatic brain events with our son, almost losing him both times, and we are still traveling the road of recovery with him.   I have been married for 30 years...to the same amazing man, whom I love dearly and who continues to love me in spite of my quirks.  But I will tell you that not all of those years was he 'so amazing'...but then, neither was I.  

I guess you can say I have scars...lots of them from the hurts of life.  But....they are scars, not wounds. Scars are an indication that healing has taken place.  

I love to share stories of healing.  Jesus also loves healing and redemption. He loved us enough to share his wounds with us...those scars in His hands and feet.  The very proof that He understands us in our hurts. He understands rejection and emotional pain. He chose to walk the road that led to hurt, pain and rejection...even a cruel death on a cross for you and I. Oh how thankful that He walked that particular road so that we don't have to. He walked that path of woundedness so that we could find hope and complete healing...wholeness!

We all have scars of some kind. We live in a broken world; broken as a result of sin entering the world. But Christ came to give us life. To heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds. Allow Him to heal your wounds, and let the scars that are left behind become the proof of the healing work of redemption and restoration in your life. When you begin to let that truth sink in...the truth of your worth to the God of all creation, the truth that you are loved beyond your wildest imagination, sweet sister...that is when the healing begins.  As Jo Ann says in her book,

Those thin places

where truth seeps through—

those are the places where Jesus walks, the places we find healing.

Won't you join us on this journey? Won't you find your voice?

God..."heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds."                                                                                                ~Psalm 147:3

I am linking up with Jo Ann and other beautiful women every Wednesday to talk about finding our voices...sharing our stories.  Not to rehash the past...or to commiserate over our wounded-ness but with freedom and joy and purpose to share our hearts and allow God to use us...our voices...to make a difference, to help women find hope and healing.