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Hurt people don’t have to hurt people
In junior high school, I read an article that crushed me. It said that the abused become abusers. Taking in this statement resulted in years of my being afraid of myself and what I might do to others, or what others might think I would do, because of the beatings, sexual assault, and emotional abuse that I had suffered from the time I was a toddler. This self-fear also began a cycle of lying to others, saying that I was well while actually feeling suicidal and practicing self-harm. Despite being shy, soft-spoken, and obedient, I constantly dreaded the monster that I feared lay just below the surface.
Decades later, when I thought I was past those feelings, they came flooding back one night, triggered by hearing a radio program discussing abused children, their abusers, and cycles of abuse. But what seemed to be an enormous setback led to a transformational blessing.
Sitting open on the kitchen counter were my Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. A passage from Science and Health on the infinite distance between Spirit and matter seemed to stare up at me, demanding to be read. It said: “The temporal and unreal never touch the eternal and real. The mutable and imperfect never touch the immutable and perfect. The inharmonious and self-destructive never touch the harmonious and self-existent. These opposite qualities are the tares and wheat, which never really mingle, though (to mortal sight) they grow side by side until the harvest; then, Science separates the wheat from the tares, through the realization of God as ever present and of man as reflecting the divine likeness” (p. 300).
Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.
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April 24, 2023 issue
View IssueEditorial
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When our healing isn’t quick
Tony Lobl
Keeping Watch
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What is real?
James Shepherd
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God gives us the ability we need
Melford Roe
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You can stop blaming yourself
Beverly Peake
- Image and Inspiration
Teens
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No more menstrual cramps
Mabel Matteson
Healings
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Hurt people don’t have to hurt people
Name Withheld
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Ankle healed
Melissa Hayden
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Abnormal bleeding stopped
Lindsay Catlin
Bible Lens
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Everlasting Punishment
April 24–30, 2023
Letters & Conversations
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Letters & Conversations
Rosalie E. Dunbar, John Qualtrough, Julia Malone