Читать книгу A Hill of Beans - Joyce Putnam Eblen - Страница 2

Some years ago I was watching television when Nancy Grace showed a clip on her TV show of a prominent judge beating his teenage daughter. She strongly conveyed her horror at the images and spoke convincingly of the necessity of stopping this man and bringing him promptly to justice. Seeing this segment on her show was a major turning point for me. Although it was painful to watch, it was also strangely healing as well. You see, I was the girl in the video. Although my father wasn't a judge, he was a well-educated professional who had routinely done to me what I was now seeing on my television set.

I had been told over and over again that I was such a "bad girl" that I constantly needed to be disciplined. Spankings were necessary for a person like me who couldn't seem to learn any other way. I was "bad" when I was a child and got even worse when I became a teenager. I was never too old for a good spanking, because I hadn't yet learned how to behave. I wasn't being beaten; I was being disciplined. Poor, uneducated parents who lived in trailers beat their children. Parents with college degrees who lived in the suburbs "disciplined" theirs. I believed that lie for a long time.

Another lie I regularly had been told was that I would never amount to "a hill of beans". I would never finish anything I started, support myself financially, marry well, or make any kind of life for myself. In short, I wasn't worth very much. I believed that lie, too.

I am telling my story so that those who have been told the same lies can see that life can change. We don't have to live in the lies. There is hope for those who have been scarred by physical and emotional abuse. There is truth to be found by those who have been fed lies by parents, teachers, co-workers, and perhaps even religious leaders. This truth will not be found by denying what happened, excusing it, or ignoring it. It begins with facing it.

When I began to face the lies and substitute truth in their place, I began to heal. I am much more than "a hill of beans". I am made in the image of God, and this is His story as well as mine.