OC: https://windhavenministry.org/gaslighting-a-shift-in-reality/
It was put on my heart this morning to write today’s Sunday post about gaslighting. Today is Easter. Jesus was resurrected on this day, and this post is intended to resurrect anyone who has been gaslit from their own reality. Your experience and truth are your experience and truth. The reality of what happened to you cannot be changed by somebody else.
Gaslighting is when an abuser attempts to brainwash reality and truth to bend it to suit their own needs or wants. I’m going to share a little bit more from my own story today, in hopes that it will encourage others to hold on to reality and not the false memories that the abuser attempted to create from gaslighting. Today I’ve overcome my abuse and I am the happy mother of children again.
My ex threatened me into leaving my children with him, and then turned around and told the world that I abandoned my children. Reality check. I didn’t simply choose to leave my children behind, I was threatened into leaving my children behind. This is how simple it is for an abuser to shift reality. Did I make a bad choice? Yes. I absolutely did. But was it abandonment? No, it was not.
Today I’m not focusing on the poor choice I made anymore, because it is in the past and there is nothing I can do about the past. Today I am focusing on the present and the future. I have decided to use my experience for good, not for bad. I have decided to not allow my experience to steal my joy. I got a grip on reality again, and I get to make different choices now. I get to choose to be the happy mother of my children again.
“I don’t know where you are, Devil, but I know you can hear me. You have played with my mind and had your way long enough! No more! You are done! Jesus is the Lord of this house, and that means there’s no place for you here anymore! So take your lies, your schemes, and your accusations and get out in Jesus’ name! This house is under new management and that means you are out! And another thing, I am so sick of you stealing my joy, but that’s changing too. My joy doesn’t come from my friends, it doesn’t come from my job, it even doesn’t come from my husband. My joy is found in Jesus, and just in case you forgot, he has already defeated you, so go back to Hell where you belong and leave my family alone!”
Priscilla C. Shirer: War Room
I got to make the choice to use my experience to help others not follow in my footsteps. History doesn’t have to repeat itself. Christ died on that cross on Good Friday and was resurrected today so that we could have room to learn the lessons from our mistakes. Christ died and rose again so that we could be saved from abuse and learn how to love one another.
The entire underlying theme of the Bible is abuse vs. love. Jesus had to come to end a world of abuse. He gave one new commandment: “love one another.” If we can choose love instead of lies, hate, and abuse, we can overcome everything.
This is why we developed our abuse recovery program here at Wind Haven, free and easily accessible to anyone online. Through healing, we get to choose love. Through healing, we get to choose truth. Through healing, we get to choose life.