That's funny. He gave me two families full of serpents. I would equate unrepentant abusers with serpents. Both my families are riddled with them -- and actively abusive at this very minute; not a single one has ever repented and reformed; they are passing the abuse on to the next generation -- and God most certainly put me into them. I've been hearing this all my life: "God loves you so he gave you a loving family." He didn't give me a loving family, he gave me abusers, quite a lot of them. Then church members say things like, "Well you volunteered to be abused; you chose this." No, I didn't choose abuse. Ultimate blame the victim. Or "God gives you what he knows you need and he knew you needed abuse, so be happy about it." I won't write my response to that gem here. There are some serious logical flaws. I hear things like this that are completely false for my family every time I go to church, watch conference, or sit through any church-organized event. Then I get told God loves the serpents just as much as he loves me and they might possibly end up living on the same street with me in the Celestial Kingdom so I should "think celestial" and feel joyful about it. I won't write my response to that, either. Is there a Plan C?
I appreciate the openness of your expression, I can relate to what you have shared I was raised in upstate New York in a sexually addictive family in the Methodist Church. As the youngest child of the family, there was sexual abuse that took place throughout my growing up years It was a very confusing, dark, lonely, cold difficult time in my life At age 21 I have the blessing of asking for, and receiving a personal witness of Jesus Christ New Testament church being restored to the Earth I’ve always been active in the church, and I’ve been blessed generously with the spirit, is the only way I am still here. But at the same time For the next 48 years after baptism, I experienced dark degrading destructive embarrassing negative emotions that I could not get rid of. No book person program three marriage counselor, six bishops, or one stake president could tell me what was wrong. In 2014 heavenly father spoke to me by the spirit, saying I needed to witness and testify what he has done for me in my life. This led to the church of Jesus Christ, latter-day, Saints dictionary recovery program, where, based on the principles of the gospel and confidentiality and anonymity I heard people share very sensitive, uncomplimentary things about themselves. For the first time in my life, I felt comfortable sharing with others, as you have done, what I actually felt inside. Utilizing the principles of the gospel, I learned how to come to Christ and how to repent. I share with you that the doctor destructive degrading negative emotional power of childhood sexual abuse, no longer exist within me, for my savior has taken up Important thing I share is how do we repent. 1 - Confess to heavenly father, in every graphic detail what has taken place 2 - Ask heavenly father for forgiveness For my sins. But for many of the things I was describing to heavenly father needed healing, not forgiveness because these things were done to me. 3 - Finally be that the infinite suffering of Jesus Christ and his physical body and the life bloodshed of Jesus Christ, be applied to my soul to cause the dark destructive negative embarrassing, emotional power to cease within me in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ------- How might this apply in your situation? Isaiah, there is a verse that says it pleased him to bruise him. This troubled me, because thinking that heavenly father was pleased that his only begotten son Jesus Christ was suffering, was not consistent with my understanding of Heavenly Father Years later, in the gospel doctrine class it was explained, of course, he thought it was not pleased to see his only perfect regard son suffer, but he was pleased to see the plan of mercy being implemented ------- What brought this into focus so I could understand and except my experiences in life was what I will quote from teachings of the presidents of the church Lorenzo, Snow page 110 I dare say that in the pre-mortal spirit world, , When it was proposed to us to come into this probation, and pass through the experiences that we are now receiving, it was not altogether pleasant and agreeable. The prospects were not so delightful, and all respects as might have been desired. Yet there is no doubt that we saw, and understood, clearly there, that, in order to accomplish our exaltation and glory, these were necessary experiences, and however disagreeable it might have appeared to us, we were willing to conform to the will of God and consequently we are here ------- Elder Bednar gave a talk on prayer and included this statement to become what we are destined to become as his sons and daughters doesn’t come by staying the same and it doesn’t come by not having to deal with some demanding and difficult things -------- Sister Ronia in October 2023 general conference spoke these words Wouldn’t it be interesting? If at the end of our lives, we could see that those relationships, even those challenging experiences, were the very thing that helped us to become more like our savior? Each interaction is an opportunity to learn how to love a deeper level, a Godlike level ------ I am 79 years old Looking back over my life, I would not change a thing because it is the way I’ve come to know and love my heavenly father and my savior Jesus Christ Charlie Dietz
