DONNY AND MARIE AND BEING SET FREE
A few years ago, I threw away my Barbies and my baby doll from my childhood. I had many Barbies. My favorites were Donny and Marie Osmond. I remember watching their show when I was little. I remember being in my grandparent’s living room, sitting cross-legged in my long, flannel nightgown, looking up to them as they danced, sang, and looked beautiful. I had all their outfits for my dolls. I especially liked Marie’s multi-colored, bright blue, orange, yellow, and red festive dress. I was having a really bad moment when I got rid of them.
I was incited, hurt, and exhausted from dealing with my mom’s alcoholism for the millionth time. I was about 30 years old, and I decided that I didn’t want to have anything around me from my childhood. I threw them out in an enflamed moment in the flesh. I’ve regretted it ever since. Last summer I was asking God to please forgive me for the anger that I had all those years ago. I carried it around for the first 36 years of my life. It had exhausted me.
This past summer, God set me free from intense hurt and anger when He taught me that true forgiveness was not telling someone you forgive them for all the stuff they did to you or didn’t do for you by saying, “I forgive you for abandoning me, for not caring for me, for being addicted to drugs and alcohol, for not protecting me as a kid (No!)….”, but that true forgiveness is when you ask the other person for forgiveness for any ill feelings, thoughts, or actions that you have had towards them. God taught me that when we truly forgive, we are able to ask them to forgive us for our part in it. We no longer focus on their sin; we don’t bring it up to them; we simply ask them to forgive us for “our part.” That’s it!
After reading The Bait of Satan book by John Bevere, I called my mom and asked her to forgive her for not treating her kindly for 36 years. She immediately forgave me, and I immediately quit having nightmares that would wake me up where I was screaming in rage at her. I have been set free! At last!
About a month ago, I was telling my best friend, Brenda, how I truly regret throwing those dolls away, and how I have been asking God to replace them somehow. “Only He could replace my Donny and Marie and my babydoll,” I said. “Even if they aren’t the “exact ones” I had, I know He can bring some other ones to me, so I’ve asked.” Brenda said, “No way!” I didn’t understand her response, but she went on to say that last summer, she was at a garage sale and she grabbed up a Donny and Marie doll. She said that she felt silly buying them as a 37 year old woman, but she was really drawn to them; she had always wanted them as a kid. “I wonder what God is up to?” she said as she giggled.
Brenda sent me the dolls for Christmas.
At the garage sale, she also got their entire wardrobes, including all their shoes (for a buck!)! She made a wardrobe box for them (hand painted!). She even went as far as to include a pink camo Barbie shirt for Marie, and she shrunk down the cover of The Warrior Mom Handbook, and put it in Marie’s hand. Brenda has two boys so she happened to have a dog-tag and chain from a GI Joe doll, and she put it around Marie’s neck. She sent me “Warrior Marie.”
I have no words to truly describe the joy I experienced in receiving these dolls back from God and Brenda. It was a surreal experience as I looked at their little faces and praised God as He restored a piece of me that had been trampled on and then thrown out. He restored my spirit in a place that only He could reach in a miraculous way. My almost 16-year-old daughter, Faith, and I sat there and got Marie ready for her Warrior model walk. Faith fixed her hair in a ponytail. We put her white go-go boots on and some blue pants with a silver belt to match her dog-tag. Brenda said she’s going to make Marie her own set of pink and brown battle dress uniform (BDU’s). I think we’ll find some black boots from a GI Joe doll and give them to Marie as well.
God is able to restore whatever was taken from you. Turn it over to Him, and ask Him to do what only He can do. He’s such a loving Father!
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him by the power for ever and even. Amen.
1 Peter 5:6-11
There’s Strong. Then There’s God-Strong.
Warrior Moms Unite!®
Kristina Seymour loves to encourage and equip women through the Word and through community. She is the author of The Warrior Mom Handbook, The Warrior Mom Leadership Manual, and The Warrior Wife Handbook; they are available at Amazon.com. Kristina's Bible studies are for women who desire to live by faith in the midst of their everyday lives. She has learned that women can't survive on caffeine and animal crackers alone; women in the Word and in community are united and able to stand firm. To learn more about Kristina, please visit her recently founded Share & Company Publishing House http://seymourkristina.wix.