Cleaning The Wound

All of us have experienced past emotional hurts, but victims of abuse are presented with the toughest challenge on their road to recovery. Oftentimes, they only partially heal, or don't heal at all, because they don't properly treat the wound.

Because of the guilt and shame involved in all kinds of abuse, they'll only share most of their experiences, most of their thoughts and feelings with their counselor, psychologist, psychiatrist, parents, or friends. After all, not only did they have to endure the humiliation of the abuse itself, now they have to endure the humiliation of asking for help, and the humiliation of sharing their experiences with someone to help them get over it. For victims of abuse, telling 99% of the truth is their way of exerting some power over what happened to them. To tell 100% of the truth of what happened in the past and how they feel about it means to be 100% vulnerable, and most of us don't like to be 1% vulnerable, nevermind 100%.

But they have to be in order to successfully treat their wound. Doctors and nurses will tell you that even if a wound is 99% clean, the 1% that's still infected can grow and reinfect the rest of the wound.

The Enemy wants us to feel that shame, that guilt, so we will hold onto that 1% of out past hurts. The Enemy knows, over time, that 1% will spread and begin infecting other areas of our lives. Those with past hurts need to seek out help and be 100% open and honest about what caused the wound, and their thoughts about what happened. It's the only way to be 100% healed.