SHARE AND SUPPORT HERE

From: Missy Sent: 31/10/2005 09:27

Dear Elaine,
You are a very brave lady. In the time I have known you I have learned you have been through a lot and I like you believe it has made you what and who you are today, and thats someone very special. You are always there, you never leave anyone to cope alone, you've always got a method to the problem and never ever anwer with a simple "I dont know". You Elaine are truly blessed and so am I for having met you, its a friendship I truly cherish and I love you for being you! .

Your Good friend MISSY.xxxxxxxxxxxx.
From: Dunggate Sent: 31/10/2005 10:02
Awww You are all so lovely and now I am crying thank you for coming alonside me and allowing me to offload a bit. What is so silly is I find it hard to receive tenderness I go all boo hooin lately I'm getting the release needed I realise.
Love you all Elaine.
From: Missy Sent: 31/10/2005 12:47
Your not alone Elaine.

From: Dunggate Sent: 30/10/2005 23:49
It was very hard for me to be honest I was tempted not to write as you and Kandy covered it well.
Gilly God bless you my darling sister in Jesus I was so afraid to post and not sure whether it would be deleted cos I exposed that I contemplated taking my life.
Yerrrr it was scary Gilly to open up some of my past to others who look to me for guidance and help. I know that our Father will return to me the years the locust has eaten and even now I see this coming to pass. I just wanted to pass on this message to others it has been a long haul in my life, BUT our great God will not let go of your hand, we may let go of his in all our sufferings I cling to his word Romans 8 :28 God will bring good out of a bad situation and this has not only been my guide and my strength but my experience. He has helped me to grow into the person he wants me to be......ok I have not made it, none of us has but I am not the person I was yesterday or a few years ago. Little by little our God is making me to go forward.
But my trusted friends.....We must be willing to let go of the rope and Trust God
God bless you all as we seek to go forward and trust God
Love in Jesus Elaine

From: Gilly Sent: 30/10/2005 22:51
My dearest friend Elaine, thankyou for sharing so much and so deeply. It must have taken great courage to open up to us about such suffering, and I feel it has brought many of those past hurts back to the surface where you have buried them deeply as you support your son. Such is the heart of a loving mother who puts her children's needs before her own.
Perhaps God is showing you that now it is time for you to start putting yourself first for once, and this is your time for your healing so that you can then better minister to Paul. I feel so angry at that minister who gave such bad and foolish advice. Its understandable why at times of our greatest need, our own churches are often the last place we would go to unload. I don't mean to judge all churches as harshly, many are very supportive and understanding, but it is often best to speak with either a very, very trusted friend or a counselllor who is trained to help you explore all those old painful memories and feelings, and to do so in a non judgemental way, otherwise as was mentioned by Kandyzkisses, guilt is going to kick in and often this is so misplaced and not warranted.
There's no doubting the Lord has given you tremendous strength and courage and He has walked every step of your journey with you.....and now He is using you as a support for others. You, too, have started to unburden as you share. God Bless you Elaine for being such a fearless lady of courage as you minister to others with a heart that only wishes to serve and to support them through their suffering.
Love Gilly

This was mentioned in our Focus Discussions DEPRESSION
so I have brought into another thread.
I write my experience here how as a Christian I too suffered depression to the degree that I really believe and still do now it was a battle with the devil I was going through a divorce and ok many people have divorced and not sank to those extremes but after so much that had happened earlier in my life and the daily struggle with a child Paul begging me to either get him a new daddy or take John back. I was coming to the end of my rope trying to keep it all together and showing I was strong for the children when inside I was falling apart, just wanted someone to take over and help me. I write some of what happened in the hope if will be of some help that maybe someone else is going through similar.

I should explain that the thought entered my head to take my life, when I was at home I rushed to my Church and was taken to the tea room and talked, cried and poured my heart out what had happened, as I had always appeared very strong I suppose it came as a great surprise to them, while I was explaining, another thought entered my head to do Paul also which I told them. I was prayed for and taken home and dropped outside my door, no one visited me for two weeks. As I explained there was much involved which I do not need to go into details here, but I can say that the Pastor did not understand and was certainly not lead of the holy spirit when he called across the road to me about 2 weeks later: “Elaine I have been meaning to visit you,” my heart lifted and I thought oh! they do care, what he said next really hit me back, he shouted across “I need to tell you, you do realise you can’t get married again“. Oh I really needed to know that NOT this was the furthest thing from my mind. I did not receive any counselling or help from anyone but God saw me through.

It has been many years now, but I would advise people to seek professional help. It was quite a few years later that my daughter did, for it had left scars on her life, and she tried to persuade me to go also but I was tired and still in the battle taking Paul to see a counsellor so there was little time for myself.

I do know that God has been my strength and as we put our trust in him He will see you through it may not come overnight it may be a long haul. But share with a trusted friend or counsellor is my advice. God uses people. Who knows just sharing this with you, enables me to offload what I was not able to those years earlier and probably part of my healing.

Thank you for allowing me to share this with you.

God Bless this group and my wonderful online family.

Elaine.