Struggles – everyone has at least one. When a struggle becomes something that wears us down and revisits us, like a disease coming out of remission, it becomes like super glue. It becomes a bonding agent, or an agent of bondage.
I know I’m really in trouble when I become so ashamed of my recurring struggles that I try to hide them. I should be over that by now! I dealt with this! People are going to start to think I have no faith! It is in my attempt to hide or cover-up my struggles that the danger of them becoming secret struggles arises.
A few days before returning to work twelve years ago, I asked my boss what I should tell people who ask me where I’ve been for the last little while. “Tell them the truth,” he said. So, I did. To anyone who asked me where I had been I responded, “I was in rehab for drug addiction.”
In being honest, I removed the insidious power of this bondage in my life. I couldn’t believe how many people told me that they had been touched, in some way or other, by my honesty. I became unSuper Glued from the bondage of my secret struggle by putting it out there.
Jodie is a fellow blogger, or should I say blogette? She is doing some research on women’s struggles and has requested assistance. I’d never ask anyone to do anything I’m not prepared to do myself, so I’m listing my top ten struggles. I have no doubt, once I put them “out there” that God will begin to do further healing in these areas. He’ll do the same for you. If you're up to the challenge, follow this link to help Jodie and yourself, and please include your age. Okay – I’m 48 – but I’m not telling you how much I weigh.
My Top Ten Struggles, in no particular order:
1. Having grace and mercy abounding for others, but not myself.
2. Believing that I am truly lovable to others, and sometimes even God.
3. Seeing the beauty of Christ in me.
4. Being still with God; I can write to Him as if speaking but these last ten months,
I can barely utter a word to Him.
5. Being a single mom; it's hard being the one who is always responsible for everything.
6. Struggling with the root of addiction; if it's not one thing it seems to be another.
7. Pride.
8. Believing that I really have something to contribute.
9. Poor body image.
10. Socializing with more than one person at a time. I'm shy and insecure (pride again).
