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 I have to profound privilege to be the Community Manager at Whole Women Ministries (formally Dirty Girls Ministries) and have shared my thoughts on "Magic Mike" and the obsession with selling sex in our culture. Hop on over to join in on the conversation... Add Comment I'm honored to share my story over at Covenant Eyes today. In doing so I pray that I bring awareness not only to the women who struggle with pornography & sex addiction, but also to the Church body. This is an epidemic folks & the battle for healing is on! I'm a little annoyed. With that annoyance comes a complete inability to express myself in a loving yet critical way. I don't want to be annoyed. I want to know that the constructive criticism I've given has been received well and built upon. But I don't know that. I might never know that. Which makes this annoyance sink deeper. This week at Naked Truth the message was on singleness. Honestly, I dreaded it. I hate being singled out because I'm single... especially because I don't want to be single. I understand the church's desire to address the single community and I appreciate their enthusiasm in reaching all of their members. But to me, talking about singleness just makes it that much more unbearable. I don't need to be told by yet another person that God has a reason for my singleness, that He has a plan. I know all of this, believe me! This was where my annoyance started and it continued to ebb and flow over the remainder of the evening and eventually leaked into my week.  This is me... I am a recovering sex and porn addict. Shocked? Yeah, me too. Shocked that this was ever something that I stumbled onto, shocked that I am in recovery, and shocked that I’m saying it here for the whole world to see. I thank the Lord every day that I am in recovery, but more so, that He has given me the boldness and the courage to say these words... I am a recovering sex and porn addict... and I’m a woman! Without boldness, this issue will never be addressed. Without boldness from other women, it would have taken me so much longer to be released from this bondage. This bondage that was horrifyingly excruciating and often times debilitating.
A woman who, up until relatively recently thought that my worth was grounded in if I could get a guy to love me or even just show me favor. A woman who thought her identity in Christ was solidified but threw it out the window the second she received male attention. A woman who struggled silently for too long. There are so many of us out there and too often we think that we are alone. But this much I know is true: that is a lie. We are not alone. Not only do we have our Lord, Jesus Christ walking with us, but we also have each other. We have each other to lean on, to love, to support, and to encourage. We ache for each other and have the desire to reach out but often don't know how. The aching is the starting point, dear friends. It is God speaking to us, telling us to speak up. Be bold! Love one another as He has loved us. UNCONDITIONALLY. Stop breaking each other down, stop judging. Just ache and love. There is light in the darkness, sisters. You are not alone. There is hope in the aching. What girl (what person for that matter!) doesn't compare herself to others? It's human nature to feel inadequate, to believe there's something missing, to always try harder.
"If only I could lose 5 pounds someone will love me." "If I could just make $10,000 more a year I could get out of debt." "Once I get married this addiction will go away." These are all things I've told myself. These are all lies. Lies from "The Deceiver" himself. He tells us these types of things so that we'll constantly try harder, often in vain & ignore the root of the issue... grace. Or rather the lack thereof. | Subscribe
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