From the foothills of the Ozarks to the Top of the World! An Abuse Survivor rises above her past and finds JOY in life after abuse.

by Linda Settles
(Rustburg, VA)

I just spent seven amazing days at the International Christian Retailers Show in Orlando Florida. I didn't make it to Universal Studios, Disneyland, or Sea World, but I had an amazing plethora of experience standing on concrete floors at the Orange County Convention Center until my ankles resembled tree trunks! I hardly noticed. I was so caught up in the excitement of the show, the wonder of fellowship with hundreds of people whom I had never met until those seven days, and the opportunity to share my story with so many people who seemed remarkably interested in what I have to say.
All this was delightfully overwhelming for the girl (okay, slightly elderly lady) from Arkansas who lived thirty-three years before she found her voice. Thirty-three years of silent suffering. I felt like Jack coming out of the box--springing to life right there on the Convention floor. "Hey, fellow travelers though this wide and treacherous world, I am here!" "I am alive and I am talking to you!" "Yea!"
And yet, there were moments of introspection, moments when I was filled with awe at the power of God-- a God whose Grace is sufficient to take us as we are and make us what He wants us to be. He is still working on me--and he proved that often throughout the last seven days. I thank Him for it.
There were tender moments, as well, as the floodgates of the past opened up for some who came to visit at my booth and we shared both sorrows and joys that had brought us to the place where we were standing--a place of victory, a pinnacle of triumph over the past--and an aching desire to be all that we can be.
We (surviors of abuse) have been pushed down, walked on, and torn apart, but we don't stay there! By the strength of a Power Higher than ourselves, we rise again and walk. Not just walk, we run, we soar. We "mount up with wings as eagles."
We have found our voice and we will shout it from the mountain tops, "I am more than you thought I was. I am better than I believed I was. And I am on the way to the best that I can be!" Yea!