Another Article from the pages of The Mansfield Enterprise...                                             
                                     
At Home with Loretta... 
It Never Stops…Hurting...Domestic Violence

   Some women go through abuse to protect their children, to save their lives or the lives of other family members. They pray no one ever knows... however, something always tells them everyone does. Somehow, they get through the madness, through the brutal beatings, through the heartless humiliation done to them and against them. They know they are not doing this alone because daily they pray fervently for help!

  
  However, sometimes when you pray for deliverance seemingly, it doesn't come..."How Lord can I take anymore beatings," you plead. Then, you find yourself praying death will end it all. You quickly block this thought from your mind as you think about the girls...what will happen to them? Will he beat them? Will be assault them too? "Oh Lord, please let me endure this abuse for the sake of my girls. I have to live...I want to live...Please don't let me leave them Lord...please don't let me die!"
  
  Hello, you know my name from blogging these few years...but what you don't know is... I was a victim of domestic violence!

  God answered my prayers! Somehow I made it through the years; even though the abuser is no longer here, I still live traumatized. Dreams and reminders are vividly persistent. 
  Screams leave my lips with sounds that are unfamiliar even to me as I awaken in the night terrified and in a cold sweat. It’s still very real in my mind and especially my dreams when I wake screaming for mercy only to realize it’s just a dream. 
 The profanity, the hurtful degrading words and degrading actions against my body and the bloody beatings  the name-calling all are indelible in my memory.

   The brutal beatings have left my body weakened with pain from broken bones that have obviously healed improperly. Doctor visits…unheard of for fear my secret will come out. And, if I did muster up courage to go...doors, falls, foreign objects and my clumsiness were the fists and feet that assaulted me.

  The disfigurements, especially the ones you can’t hide vulgarly stares back at you from mirrors. The diseases, others filth visited upon you make the affliction unbearable to live with. And when the depression set in, you pray this most foul existence ends.

                Children living in the home of an abuser

  You are even more horrified when your child grows up to use this same violence and abuse he’s witnessed against you. You pray it hasn't rubbed off on him, but in your heart, you know its true…inescapably so! 

I am so thankful that I have God in my life and I am living my life and walking in His way. Yes, I was a victim of domestic violence when I was younger. 

But, walking in the way of the Lord and having a husband like James has taught us both how He intend couples to live in harmony together. Now, I am a Survivor!

  This secret behind closed doors and shuttered windows is the worst against families in the history of its arrangement. Lives are shattered. It affects us all. It leaves its mark on innocent babies, children, teens, and adults. Abuse always hurt! 
  It is a pattern of behavior that’s used to establish power and control over one who is intimated by their abuser with threats, and acts of violence. Yes, domestic abuse knows no boundaries; it affects persons of all cultures, ages, education, religions, and nationality.

  Violence begins in the heart and mind. James 1:14,15 explains the way one act begins with how one thinks. So, the abuser needs to transform his way of thinking Romans 12:2.   God’s word has the power to change a person. It says, “So husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies, he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh Ephesians 5: 28, 29 (A part is quoted here). 1 Peter 3:7 tell husbands to assign his wife “honor as a weaker vessel”. 

  Our Creator purposed families to live in love and peace, not violence and smiling behind fear and pain. Men, husbands, fathers, “Use your “hands” and “hearts” to help and love your families, not to hurt them!

  Click on the chart above to see the signs Of domestic violence. Don't suffer in silence...report abuse! Domestic Violence is against the LAW REPORT IT TODAY!!
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