Challenges students face

I had the chance to counsel and encourage a student this week. I thought I would share her story. She began by saying she hadn’t felt the ability to talk with anyone then she went on to tell about her shame and guilt she carried. She said that her mom had remarried when she was 11 and her brothers and sisters when to live with her grandmother. So when her mom was gone her step-father began to physically abuse her. She told her mother and she said she was lying and that she should be quite and not say such things about her step father. So the abuse continued until she became pregnant at 13. She told her grandmother who is a midwife and she forced her to get an abortion.

She shared how she saw men, the anger she felt toward her mom and grandmother. She wants to forgive them and feels she has but still carries the emotions. She also isn’t sure she can ever find a man she can trust.

We talked about her relationship with Jesus. I apologized as a man and a father that she was so mistreated. We then talked about the long term process of forgiveness and that Jesus would continue to help her totally forgive. I prayed for her to find male friends that would help her to trust men.

I was so impressed with her trust in Jesus and her experience of His love for her. Faith is a journey that isn’t always easy but it is always freeing.

Please pray for her as she continues to heal emotionally and journeys down.