Jars of Clay

Emotional trauma can have an extremely adverse effect on human behavior. Some people's emotional wounds have been ignored for so long they have become infected. Bridget was not immune to this. She had lived her life beneath the triggers of the feelings she couldn't express. She always said she was okay, no matter how her heart beat, no matter how long it took her to catch her breath. She was a ticking bomb. She could go from zero to sixty in five seconds flat. She always said she was okay but deep down she knew that the shackles of delayed grief, feelings of rejection and resentment, her father's absence, sexual abuse in the hands of her "mentor", heartbreak and experiences of cyberbullying, didn't leave her the same person. The change had been gradual, but it felt as though it had happened all at once, a tectonic shift, a free fall. When she embarked on her healing journey, she realized that once exposed to the light, things hidden in darkness lose their power. She felt the great jaws of fear loosening and in its place was a flicker of forgiveness, of acceptance, of moving on. A flicker of excitement and contentment of what it means to be truly whole. Her strength is a constant surprise, with all the world still hers to conquer. She is in constant awe of the King who chooses and uses the weak and flawed people, and who heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.