By Adams Allison
No matter what you’ve been through, stop playing the role of a victim. Be the product of God’s Word, not the product of your circumstances or of your environment. We have all been victimized one time or another. But we don’t have to be victims.
While facilitating a Pagemaster Discipleship Training, I recalled a very painful childhood experience. . .
I lived with some family friends between the ages of 10 and 12. While there, I was more or less like an unwanted child. Family feud had led me there and they in turn had reluctantly accepted me into their family.
Now, on this fateful day, someone had stolen something in the house (or maybe the item was just missing, I don’t know and may never know), and I was summoned as the prime suspect. The mother of the house said her last born was incapable of stealing it, that he was too young to commit such a crime (fun fact; he was only a year younger than I was), and she said the immediate older son could not have stooped so low to commit such an act because he was too mature to do that and he had outgrown stealing (another fun fact; he was just a year older than me).
So, the verdict? I had to be the one.
She pressured me to admit that I was responsible for the missing item but I stood my ground and maintained my innocence.
Then she sent one of the older children in the house to go and get a bowl hidden somewhere in her bedroom. When it arrived, she told me what it was – it was juju (black magic). She offered it to me to eat, and that if I was guilty, I would drop dead, but if I was innocent I would live. She added that there was therefore nothing for me to worry about if I was innocent (but there was indeed something to worry about aside my innocence, what about my devotion to God? I couldn’t prove my innocence to another god and be guiltless before my heavenly Father). So I refused to eat the substance but she kept pressuring me to eat it.
I am certain that given enough time I would have caved in, but God in his mercy saved me in the nick of time. I was saved by the bell; the father of the house returned home. He was a childhood friend of my dad, that’s why I ended up in his house.
God is truly a present help in time of need.
I couldn’t believe how emotional I was when I shared this story. It suddenly occurred to me that the juju substance might have actually been poison and I would have died regardless of my innocence… We will never know.
Bottom line is, no child should have to go through such an experience.
This was just one experience out of a three year experience living in that house with the woman.
But I overcame. I am an overcomer. Through the years, the Word of the Lord has healed me and shaped me. I did not let the experiences define me or victimize me. Some have been raped, others have been molested, some tortured, starved, misjudged, betrayed… the list is endless.
Whatever the experience, they are not programmers but processes. They shouldn’t define us but teach us.
I am not a product of the experience, I am a product of the lesson. The Word of God makes the difference. The experience has become a message instead of mess. It takes time to convert the mess into a message. That’s why it’s called a process. Whatever you do, never try to boycott the process.
No matter how barren a couple has been, no matter how long they have waited for a child. When they finally conceive, they must wait another 9 months.
No one can hasten the process for them to hold their bundle of joy.
We must all allow process run it’s full course.
©️ Pagemaster