Article December 31, 2018 Issue

Freed from emotional pain after abuse

Name Withheld

This story, my story, has a lot to do with forgiveness—something that is often misunderstood. Genuine forgiveness is not about accommodating or ignoring evil. It’s not about trying to think some “happy thoughts” or putting up with something wrong. To me, forgiveness is amazingly powerful when it is about standing in awe of God’s, divine Love’s, all-power. It’s about breaking free of the mesmerism that says a certain narrative has to have a permanent hold. It means freedom.

Many today have experienced unspeakably hurtful situations, and my heart goes out to them. Many are finding it difficult to forgive, find healing, and move forward. I’d like to share my experience—it may be different from others’, but this is what helped me. I want to attest to what I’ve learned through my study and practice of Christian Science about trusting God, and about how that can help us see our way through and move beyond even the most troubling times.

Several years ago, I was at a point in my life where I was filled with feelings of resentment toward an individual close to me. These feelings surfaced in adulthood based on events that happened when I was still in elementary school, decades earlier. This individual, who was also a child at the time, and whom I had trusted, molested me, using intimidation to keep me from saying no and from telling anyone. This went on for a couple of years. I knew this was all wrong and was finally able to get the behavior to stop by going to an adult and saying in a general way that this person had been bothering me. After the adult told this person to stop bothering me, the abuse ended.

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