“You matter.” These two words resounded from the mouth of Iyanla Vanzant during her spotlight moment on Oprah’s Super Soul show. Painful childhood scars silently told her story, until one day, she discovered it wasn’t her story to tell—it belonged to her grandmother. A line had been drawn on a farmland her grandmother was never meant to cross.
Unfortunately, at 9, her grandmother crossed that line and was raped by the sharecropper’s son. Her father then beat her, more worried about losing his job than his daughter’s assault.
What was the message communicated to her grandmother that day that would be passed down to Iyanla?
She didn’t matter.
My message is the same as hers: You do matter. Don’t own the scars and wounds of others.
I also had to learn this lesson. I had to face the same questions I’m asking you: What lines were drawn in the sand for you from previous generations? Where has your identity been violated? Where has your destiny been assaulted or stolen? What pain from yesterday have you carried today?
“You matter” is what you need to remember. To heal, you must identify the source of your pain. Doing this allows you to deal with and heal from what has hurt you. My mother had four children, and by the time I turned 9, I didn’t believe that my mother loved me. She never wanted four children, and I was that fourth child.
But this wound struck deeper because I believed that if my mother who had four children couldn’t love me. So how could it be possible for a God who had so many more children?
I didn’t feel like I mattered to my mother, and that was the root of rejection that would define the lines in the sand of my life. The enemy never thought I would get past those lines. Determine to allow God to help you cross those lines and help someone else over to the other side as you remind them they matter too.
If you need more reminders of how much you matter, especially to God, listen to Overcomers on the Charisma Podcast Network. {eoa}
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