NOT DEFINED BY YOUR SCARS  by   RACHEL SHAFER

NOT DEFINED BY YOUR SCARS

                                        RACHEL SHAFER

    We can dress them up, cover them up, and hide emotional scars in all sorts of creative ways.  With a physical scar, once it fades if becomes a distant memory. It’s something that happened and you’ve recovered.  It becomes a story to tell. Bit with an emotional scar, it’s easier to hide it rather than expose it.

    If we’re not careful the emotional scar doesn’t fade the way it supposed to.  Emotional scars can keep us from leading the life we’re supposed to live. We may think things like:

    “I can’t pursue my dream because I tried and failed.”

    “I can’t trust again because that trust was broken.”

    “ I can’t believe that ;  do you know what happened to me?”   

    “Do you know what I’ve been through?”

   Those are the ways we reopen a wound that should have healed and faded.  With emotional scars, we let them heal a little, then reopen them, let them heal a little more and reopen them until it sometimes becomes a bigger scar than it needs to be.

    It’s time to let the emotional scars fade.   It’s time to let them heal and not reopen them.  Don’t let emotional scars become excuses that hinder what God has for your future.  You can allow your scars to become a part of the story you tell of God’s overcoming power in your life.  

    God is saying, “Let Me fade your scars.”  Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord.  “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

   The scar doesn’t have to remind you of the person who hurt you or the situation that caused your hurt.   The scar can remind you of Jesus and how He completely transformed your life. It’s a decision we can make.  It can make a mark on you that identifies you in Christ instead of being identified by the scar. We are not defined by what has scarred us.  We are defined by our heavenly Creator.