Article July 16, 2018 Issue

Healing and freedom after abuse and trauma

Name Withheld

Recently, I was speaking with someone who was struggling with painful memories of a very grim experience that had left this person feeling traumatized. The individual had trouble believing, as I assured them, that they could be completely free of the memories and of any detrimental effects this incident had had on their life. I was certain that this person could find complete freedom through reliance on God’s care—through spiritual truths that had brought a very meaningful healing into my life years ago. 

When I was in middle school, I was sexually abused by my grandfather. It happened one time while I was visiting my grandparents and when my grandmother was not at home. I knew that what had happened was a really bad thing, but I didn’t know where to turn or what to do. The image of this molestation kept playing over and over in my mind, and I felt sick to my stomach with a jumble of emotions, from humiliation to a quaking fear. Most confusing of all was that I loved both my grandparents, and we had a very close-knit family that was fun and loving and good and had made me feel safe. This incident just didn’t fit with that picture of a loving family, and I couldn’t reconcile it. 

I had been learning in the Christian Science Sunday School that no matter what the situation may be, every child, man, and woman has equal access to God’s love; it dwells within each of us. I had always been very sure of God’s love for me. From a very early age, I remember learning that I was God’s beloved daughter and that I was God’s reflection, His expression. I’d been taught that rather than us all being innately sinful (the doctrine of original sin), we are each in reality perfect, spiritual expressions of God—a doctrine of original good, so to speak! A good that is also permanent.

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Glimpse eternal Life and find freedom from grief
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