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Beautiful scars
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“You’re a much neater person healed than you would have been well.”
That’s what Beth Moore told her husband when he mused wistfully about what kind of person he could have been if not for the tragedy and “set on fire by hell” stuff of his youth.
And with that insight, I hope we can once and for all stop hitting the rewind button on our lives and wishing we could start over again — with a different father, a different personality, and a different hand to play. We have all done unto and been done unto. We all bear scars, both self-inflicted and inflicted by others. But cheer up. As Flannery O’Connor said, anybody who has survived childhood has enough material to write a book. And, more importantly, enough experience to be useful to a hurting brother or sister somewhere down the line.
As a “well” person you would have been insufferable. Even now, after battling the bulge for twenty years, if you ever lost that fifty pounds, it would be hard not to swap the problem of obesity for pride. Sometimes God will send a tiny reminder of an overcome addiction or condition (like depression) to give you fresh compassion and humility, rather than your having to rely on memory.
I know a teenage girl who is working hard through forgiving a cult that messed up her life. I wish she could see how beautiful she looks to me.
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Soul searching
Andree, Amen and Amen!
Been there with the cult thing. Hang in there with your teenage friend.
Great post! I carry the physical scars from a house fire from 30 years ago. They are beautiful because it’s the event that led my family to Christ!
I first heard this idea in a sermon over ten years ago, about thanking God for the “gift” of some of the “bad” things in our lives. For me, that was having been raped, and thinking of it as any kind of gift was a novel idea.
If it had given me the opportunity to minister to someone else who had been raped, it would be easier to see how God was using it. But I haven’t had any such encounters, despite my husband’s efforts a couple times to persuade a woman he had met who had been sexually abused to try talking to me.
The one thing I can say I think I got from it is to be less willing to just let things happen to me (I was always extremely passive) and more willing to try to work at changing myself or situations (still a struggle for me).
Andree..check your blog daily…thanks for taking the time to share…i connect with so much of what you say…in fact i have used some of your thoughts for our family devotions! heading off to a Beth Moore living proof event tomorrow…I see she has impacted you, also.
“As a “well” person you would have been insufferable. Even now, after battling the bulge for twenty years, if you ever lost that fifty pounds, it would be hard not to swap the problem of obesity for pride.”
Referencing myself, I read the above to my husband. He said, “Yes.” I have other scars too. Apparently, I need them. “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
As I’ve mentioned in the past, I have Moebius Syndrome, a facial paralysis, primarily on the right side of my face. I only have half a smile, which looks strange, & my lips don’t close all the way (among other “symptoms”).
My husband (who thinks I’m beautiful & that my half-smile is cute) said not too long ago that if I didn’t have Moebius, I’d be too beautiful to “give [him] the time of day”. (Isn’t he sweet?
)
So, if this facial abnormality has led to me having this wonderful, loving husband, I’m grateful. It’s also let me remember more that it truly is what is inside of me that is so much more important than my looks.
Karen O.
I didn’t know you had that. Beautiful sotry about hubby:) He’s a keeper.
He sure is.