October

Wow… it seems like forever since I’ve managed to get a post in over here.  There has been so much going on, I wouldn’t know how to give a complete update… I finished school, yay!  I started selling Stampin’ Up!® again, yay!  I’m getting more and more involved in the women’s ministry at church, yay!  Things are just crazy!  I feel like I’ve been neglecting this place though, and I have to remedy that.  God’s been putting a lot of things on my heart lately and I’m trying to work through it all.  I thought today would be a good day to start.

If you’ve read my blog before you *might* remember that October is Domestic Violence Awareness month.  A few years ago I was blogging quite regularly about my journey through abuse and beyond.  I’ve really felt God tugging at my heart that, at least during the month of October, I need to go back to that for a bit.  If you’d like to read some of my previous posts on Domestic Violence you can go here to see the archives.  Be warned though, I’m honest and open, it might make you squirm, but that’s what it’s about.  We should squirm, we need to squirm.  Domestic Violence isn’t pretty, it’s ugly and as such it should take people beyond squirming in their seats to so uncomfortable that they feel the overwhelming need to do something.  Isn’t that what awareness is about?  Isn’t that why people wear pink ribbons in the month of October?  I’ve got a challenge for you, why don’t you put a purple ribbon next to your pink one this month.  Then when people ask you what it’s for tell them, it’s for Domestic Violence Awareness.  Better yet, contact a Domestic Violence shelter in your area and see if you can help somehow, take some old clothes, donate a cell phone, participate in an event on some level.  Help make a difference, no matter how small, in the life of someone who has probably just barely reclaimed theirs.  I can tell you how much it means to have someone hand you some small little nugget of hope when you feel hopeless and useless, it saves your life.

Here’s just a little info for you to start the month off…

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, did you know:

• One in every four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime.
• An estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year.
• 85% of domestic violence victims are women.
• Historically, females have been most often victimized by someone they knew.
• Females who are 20-24 years of age are at the greatest risk of nonfatal intimate partner violence.
• Most cases of domestic violence are never reported to the police.

I’m going to try to blog at least twice a week this month, hopefully more. I tried that a few years ago. I think October this year is going to be especially hard on me, I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because 21 years ago is when I lost my soul to something horrible for 10 years of my life. Maybe it’s because 21 years ago I lost something else very precious, and didn’t even know it at the time. Maybe it’s just because I have more healing to do and I didn’t realize it. Whatever it is please pray for me during the month of October, but more importantly pray for the people who are still living this nightmare every day. Pray that they are safe, that they have someone there who will be a lifeline for them even if they don’t know that they are, pray that they will find their own self worth, that they will find just a smidge of themselves and strength to reach out to someone for help, that they will find someone who will help them escape safely, and that they will stay gone. Pray for the children who are witnessing this, that they will escape, that they will know this is not the way to live, and that they will vow to end this cycle and will remain strong in that as they grow up into adulthood. That the boys will grow into strong men who will be kind and loving, never hurting their wives and children. That the girls will grow to be strong women who are confident and know that they deserve love and respect and will never fall into this trap. Pray for our society, that we will finally see Domestic Violence for the epidemic that it is and something will be done about it, that people will stop blaming the victims and seek to understand and help. Pray for those around you, remembering always as you look at your friends and family members that one in four women are victims of domestic violence… it crosses all boundaries, don’t think it can’t happen to your circle of friends, because it can and statistically it probably is.

http://www.ncadv.org/files/DomesticViolenceFactSheet(National).pdf