If I open the box, will a monster jump out?

openthebox

Each Thursday I’m honored to host an amazing group of women who gather in our online community to share their voices, to share their passion for you finding your voice. Together we walk through the book, When A Woman Finds Her Voice: Overcoming Life’s Hurts & Using Your Story to Make a Difference, and we join hands and hearts here to paint a wide hope. {We’d like to think it’s wide enough to tempt you to your own healing journey.}

 

This  week we are exploring the breaking of silence. The quitting of the quiet that has held our stories captive, possibly for many years. It is with fear and trembling that we ponder the idea of opening that can of worms. We shudder at the thought. It’s easier to just keep moving forward and leave that thing good and buried.

I was probably five or six when I first encountered a prank many have experienced in one form or another. A cousin handed me a can and said I could have a few of the snacks inside. Innocently I unscrewed the lid, and when a spring-loaded worm-looking creature shot outward toward my face I thought I would die right there on the spot. I screamed and the can flew into the air, and I think I stopped running about six houses down.

When I encourage women to dare boldly and loosen the top to their story box, I understand the fear that stops them short. Like me as an innocent little girl, we never quite lose that worry that if we open the top we won’t be able to control what comes out.

You’ve probably said it yourself: “If I start crying, I’m never going to stop.” But when it happens, you do stop. And tears are cleansing things, and the truth is you often feel better after a good cry. This is not a coincidence, us having been designed by the Creator to weep as a release.

But I get it, that hesitation you feel when you think of prying the top off that creaky canister, the one still sticky with sugar from Grammy’s gumdrops. Because those days back then, they didn’t just contain fresh-baked cookies and gum drop trees. They held things much harder to remember.

Might it help to know you aren’t alone in your fear of opening the lid? We all are, my friend.

The Enemy is a master craftsman when it comes to lies and the secrets that hide them. You know them, don’t you?
Sharing what happened will make everyone mad.
Maybe I won’t remember things as they really were.
It’s better to just pretend it never happened.
I might lose credibility in the life I’ve worked so hard to build.

I’d like to suggest that you meet the lies with some healthy truth: It’s possible some people might not like you sharing something that make them look bad, but their behavior wasn’t your choice. You will probably remember far more than you realize once you have the courage to begin. Pretending something didn’t happen doesn’t erase that it did. Any credibility lost by telling the truth wasn’t worth having.

Our topics for this week’s blog hop are designed to help you consider the notion of courageously opening a noisy, sticky, memory-laden lid and trusting God with the outcome of your sharing. As you blog this week, we encourage you to both share your own thoughts through your blog and visit the blogs of others who are bravely sharing their own openings. We also encourage continued conversation through comments here. May you feel God’s strength and the healing power of His community as you navigate this part of our shared path.

We’d like to offer the following three topics as suggestions for this week’s Voice Study Blog Hop:

1. The one thing you fear most about revealing your story
2. Tools you might gather to make the sharing of your story less intimidating
3. How community makes it less frightening to face your truth and quit the quiet

 

~ Lisa

 



11 thoughts on “If I open the box, will a monster jump out?

  1. There have been a couple of blog links that I would have loved to have read but when “click” on them they are marked as “invites only”. This happened with the #1 post, Quit the Quiet. Thought I would bring it to your attention as I’m sure there are others who cannot access and read.

  2. There have been a couple of blog links that I would have loved to have read but when “click” on them they are marked as “invites only”. This happened with the #1 post, Quit the Quiet. Thought I would bring it to your attention as I’m sure there are others who cannot access and read.

    • I actually wondered this same thing, Maria. That has to do with the original poster and unfortunately we have no control over that, so you may want to email the person who is “linking up” with us to let them know we can’t access their blog. <3

      By the way, I hope you are gearing up for a beautiful Christmas season!

      • Jo Ann, I don’t know who the author(s) are on the blogs as no contact info is made available. Maybe they will read this and realize that there are those who would just LOVE to read their words.

          • So glad for your message pointing that out. Thanks. Just want to add, how when I get up in the morning to read JoAnn’s chapters, I am always surprised to find passages that resonate as if the last time I read them, I didn’t notice them. It’s kind of fun

  3. As much as people might like, I don’t think we are all going to be able to share our stories on our blogs. I know I have thought about that before with my own story. But I just don’t think it will be possible. Although I will try to write a post and linkup soon.

    • I have a separate blog for my survivor story, and I know a few others who have limited access blogs for theirs. I think if we can share as much as we can about the journey to here, to the healing, it will be such a blessing! Just hearing that someone knows that hurting path, even without details, is such an encouragement. Pray about it, and post what God puts on your heart. Thank you for your courage Deanna!

  4. Oh you challenge me. On a level, and in a place, I rarely wish to go. I know the box, and what lives in there. And my biggest fear of letting anyone open it, or even peek inside is that no one seeing me today will believe it. Or they would change how they see me, not knowing that by coming through that God forged me into the person I am today.

  5. I need to apologize for not linking up. This seems to be a big season in my life for doing things, and my blog is on autopilot these days as I am following other things that God has provided for me to work on. While I am not sure how these new things connect to the big thing He told me I would do, I know that God will connect the dots. So while I am learning about starting an online business and working on writing a devotional for those who struggle with depression it makes it really hard to write blog posts spur of the moment like. I’ve been scheduling posts weeks in advance so I have time to pursue the other things. I thank you for grace, Jo Ann

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