Me too...

How many of you have seen the status "me too " come across your facebook feed in the last couple of days? Seeing this really does stir so much up for me. I personally have seen too many. Its heartbreaking.
  How many of us go day to day holding this all in not talking about it? Why do we do this? For me personally it was because of the constant brainwashing I got as a child.
  I was told so many things. That I was loyal, and loyal people don't tell secrets, no matter what. Loyal people don't stab each other in the back. Loyal people protect each other, no matter what. That it was love. The world doesn't agree, but this is true love. He told me he loved me so much he just couldn't help it . I was given vile disgusting literature and magazines to "normalize" it. I was threatened with harm. I was told I would be taken away and forced to live with people who were worse. That people would hate me.
  I was put into a horrible position. I loved my dad. I didn't want to see him hurt. And he just loved me so much, right? He couldn't help it. I didn't want to be a disloyal person. I didn't want to go live with someone else worse. So I kept my mouth shut. I protected him.

          BUT THEY WERE ALL LIES

I carried this into other relationships. I carried this into adulthood. I was brainwashed for years. And it is so hard to re-train your brain. We learn to protect those that hurt us. Some never learn not to.
  But God showed me otherwise. Are we not still shackled by our captors when we continue to protect them? Are we not still under their power? I was. Even years removed and thousands of miles away. I told people that I was close to. Ones that I knew would never come into contact with him. But I still protected him with our family. I still protected him with friends. I would not risk speaking out and him finding out that I "betrayed" him. I was still a prisoner.
  For years God worked on me and my heart. He encouraged me to break free of those chains and trust him. And I didn't. I wish I would have sooner. It was JUST SO FREEING once i did.
  One year I had a little too much to drink. I called my dad and I asked him why. I said "why did you do that to me?Why did you think it was ok? You were supposed to protect me"  He asked me if I was recording the call. He asked me if my husband knew. Even then I was afraid to tell him. I said " I don't keep anything from my husband" He said "so he knows?" Then I said "I didn't say that..." I was still captive. The call ended with him telling me that he never did anything wrong to me, he just loved me too much.
  What does the bible say about all of this? How does God feel? Because he is not silent on the subject.
  There are rapes in the bible. Not one of them was swept under the rug or kept quiet. They all lead to war. One in particular involved Jacobs daughter Dinah. Dinah was raped by Shechem the Hivite, who was chief of that region. A powerful man. Not only did he see her and take her, but then he professed to LOVE her. He said he loved her so much that he wanted to marry her. When her brothers found out they went and spoke to him. They pretended to be onboard with his plan to marry her and combine their two cities. They said they had one condition though. All the men needed to be circumcised. On the third day after all the men were circumcised and weak, they went into the city and killed all the men.
The other cases have a few details that are different, but ended much the same way.
  In Deuteronomy 22:25-27 we see laws condemning this behavior.  “But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die. But you shall do nothing to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case. When he found her in the field, the engaged girl cried out, but there was no one to save her.”
  God also says "For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open"Luke 8:17
So we know that God does not think this is ok. And we know that God wants all things brought into the open. We also know that HIS love looks NOTHING like what we have been told is love.
Love is patient
love is kind.
It does not envy
it does not boast
it is not proud.
It does not dishonor others
it is not self-seeking
it is not easily angered
it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects
always trusts
always hopes
always perseveres.

 Love never fails.

I support this "Me too" campaign. I feel it is a good step in the right direction. We need to teach others that they can stand up. They can voice their hurts and their pains. Because, lets be honest, its not just the perpetrator that makes victims feel like they can't speak about it. It is just as much of a taboo topic as mental illness. People look at you different. People tell you that you probably shouldn't talk about it. Family members stop talking to you....
  I want you all to know it's ME TOO. I am here for you. The Lord is there. He wants you to speak. He wants to heal all your broken pieces.
  When I first started my journey with the Lord, as a brand new believer he gave me a promise. A promise I want to share with you .
 
"He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." Psalm 147:3

When the Lord first told me this, I said to him 'I dont believe you. I dont think you can....but i will TRY to trust you"

In my most broken moments ,sometimes all i could do was read this verse over and over,reassuring myself of his promise to me. 

  I want to tell you that I am not whole yet. I will only be whole when i stand face to face with him. But the repairs he has made in me were beyond my wildest dreams. And i KNOW he can do the same for you.