While our sins are wiped clean when we surrender to God, the consequences and scars from past hurts and traumas often remain part of our story. Allison Bottke explains how this has influenced her life and relationship with Christ.
“While my relationship with the Lord has brought healing and hope to my life, it’s impossible to deny that many of my traumatic life experiences have left lasting impressions on my heart and imprints of painful memories on my brain.”
We have a choice whether or not we choose to participate with God in our healing journey. Allison says it is important to look into our hearts and ensure that we aren’t ‘hoarding our hurts’.
“I was watching a program on TV about hoarders, and God just laid it on my heart that this is what some of us are like with our own pain. We hoard it and we hold onto it. There are layers and layers of it.”
On the outside, the people who hoard physical objects seem ridiculous. However, Allison acknowledges that something inside of them prompts them to hoard. She can relate to them more than she cares to admit.
“I watched these therapists walk these people through all of this physical stuff they were hanging onto and I started asking myself: What kind of mental stuff am I holding on to? What in my mind and in my heart have I not been able to throw away?”
“I realized I’m living my life internally like these hoarders are living their lives externally. There are things that are buried that we just have to peel back, and no amount of ignoring it is going to make it go away. These are mental and emotional challenges; it’s how we are relating to people. It’s how I learned or didn’t learn to relate to people.”
Allison challenges all of us to ask God to show us if we have any hurts that we can surrender to Him so He can heal us.
Allison Bottke is a bestselling inspirational author and speaker. Her international outreach includes over 30+ published non-fiction and fiction books, including the acclaimed God Allows U-Turns compilation book series, the God Answers Prayers series, and the best-selling, award-winning Setting Boundaries series from Harvest House Publishers.
Key Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:17
Featured Songs: Restless – Audrey Assad; Where You Are (Live) – Leeland; Refresh Me – Leeland
Setting boundaries with negative thoughts
