Are abused women doomed to live as victims of abuse forever? We don't think so. The world at large would try to convince women there's no hope but that's a lie. Glenna and I have traveled many places functioning in the role of spiritual counselors. In our travels, we have heard amazing stories describing a horrendous variety of abuses to which male authority figures have subjected women. Here are a few common examples.
An abusive father can be one who is absent. He might have children from another marriage that are obviously more important than you are. He might spend time with women other than your mother, which betrays the marriage covenant and abandons you. He might be a workaholic and spend all of his time away from the home. He may have important hobbies or be an alcoholic always focused on his own needs and desires, conveying the message that these other activities are more important than you are. This tells you that you don't have the right to have feelings, emotions, wants or needs and could cause you to experience a world of shame, rejection, and abandonment.
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When the issue of gender abuse comes up, we almost always think in terms of women being abused. There seems to be a really strong gender bias concerning this issue. Even so, Glenna and I have traveled many places functioning in the role of spiritual counselors. In our travels, we have heard numerous stories describing an amazing variety of abuses to which boys and men have been subjected.
For a variety of reasons, we tend to focus on the abuses perpetrated by male authority figures. But, for the purposes of this study we will also deal with female authority figures functioning as abusers.
Before we get too deeply into the teaching, we want to address a couple of questions.
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To honor someone is to treat them with respect, to value, prize, or regard them. To dishonor someone is the opposite of honor; to devalue, degrade, treat with disrespect, or shame them.
Are we all doomed to live as victims, subject to the pain of dishonor?.... We don't think so. The world at large would try to convince people there is no hope. But, we know that's a lie. We know there is hope, but before we get into that, maybe we should describe the problem more fully.
Glenna and I have traveled many places functioning in the role of spiritual counselors. In our travels, we have heard an amazing variety of accounts describing how people have been subjected to dishonoring words, attitudes, and criticisms. These examples of dishonor were perpetrated against people of all ages and situations. The world seems highly motivated to diminish a person's value, significance, and importance; to heap shame upon them, betray their trust, mock, humiliate, and generally put them down.
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