Finding Favor: Murphy's Law in Reverse
By: Susan Deborah Schiller
From the series, "Diary of a Battered Preacher's Wife"
Introduction: I was once called "the most abused wife" my counselors had ever met. I was married to not one, but two sociopaths. The first marriage lasted 20 years; the second, nearly 10 years. Both of of my abusers are ministers. Friends have asked me to share the story of how God helped a preacher's wife escape to freedom. The escape route is recorded within 83 diary entries, and I am sharing one diary entry per day.. This is not a step-by-step blue print of how to escape a sociopath. But I will provide links within each diary, if you wish to receive specific information.
Trigger Alert: These diaries are the raw, uncensored heart cry of a woman ravaged by rabid religious beasts who is ministered to by her friends. She finds love, acceptance, and begins to reinvent her life. By the end of the story, she has turned from a timid mouse into a roaring lioness. If God can do this for me, He can definitely do it for YOU!
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Note from the Future: My name, Susan, means "tender lily" in Hebrew. I've often contemplated the pure white water lilies blooming in the stagnant, murky waters of ponds… how they remain beautiful even while submerged in dark waters.
I believe my name is meaningful, and that when people hear my story they might know that although the darkness is real, it's powerless, really. We are designed to rise up, to not be hurt anymore by dark forces. We are princes and princesses, God's royal children!
December 14, 2011
I feel like a Princess today… after yesterday's revelation, the whole world changed around me!
I went to work at the hotel… and people (strangers) looked at me differently than I've ever seen them look at me. Smiling and shaking my hand, they went out of their way to thank me for working so hard and making them feel comfortable. Not just one… but many!
And then a guy from Jackson Hole returned to the front desk, after check in, to give me a box of chocolates! I had been deep into accounting and was only seeing numbers when I looked up to see his face and it took me almost a full minute before it registered in my brain that he was giving me a gift!
This morning I updated my website and one of those dreaded fatal error messages appeared on the screen… and my hosting provider gave me a runaround that would almost have certainly cost me $150 to remedy… BUT my wordpress class has a weekly technical help call and it just happened to start one-hour after my fatal error problem… I dialed in and received help within 2-minutes… dialed back to my hosting provider and told them what to do to help me and it worked, all within 3-minutes or so… and it didn't cost me a dime! Not only that, but the problem itself pointed out an error in my hosting account from last Oct 1st that they had left unresolved, so now they're at work migrating my site with an UPGRADE that is 2-months overdue.
This is Murphy's Law in Reverse!
I was definitely not looking like a Princess today… in my work uniform, carrying huge loads of garbage, scrubbing floors, doors, windows, etc… my head in the deep, humid washing machines, up to my neck in dirty laundry, bent over accounting paperwork, or helping people get checked into their rooms. But I'm beginning to feel like one!
Every day I try to go above and beyond, at work… I not only get my own job done but I also get up to 90% of the night staff's janitorial duties done, too, just to help them out. Nevertheless, the more I do, the more my boss expects me to do … but I don't let him bully me, and he's stopped trying to physically touch me all the time. He offered me a job as his sales manager, with a small raise.
More and more, I just want to work hard and do well because I know it pleases God. so maybe it's His face shining at me through the eyes of these strangers. Or maybe they are angels… I don't know… all I know is that for yesterday and so far today, Murphy's Law has been reversed and I feel like a princess!
Oh…. I get it now…. in looking back through the past 24-hours, these are mainly MEN who are being extraordinarily nice! Maybe God wants to teach me that not all men are bad.
Note from the Future: Little by little I discovered that reality is tied to perception, and how I perceive reality determines my response to my situation. How I respond, creates more of the same reality or it opens doors to change the channel and create a new story.
I still had a long way to go, but I was beginning to learn how to create my world.
Note from the future: I am supplying explanations and observations from the "future me" – who I am today – which will explain what you are hearing in this story. Join me below for an up to date discussion, if you wish!
With all my love,
Sue
Susan Schiller knows how it feels to lose everything: marriage and family, church and reputation, finances and businesses, and more. Susan's upcoming, interactive memoir, "On the Way Home," tells the story of how she came to be known as "the most abused woman" her counselors had yet met and how she learned to navigate her way out of hell to a rich and satisfying life. In her lifetime, Susan has served in duties ranging from home school mom – to pastor – to full-time deliverance minister – and to Midwest regional prayer coordinator for a large international ministry. These days you can usually find Susan soaking in her favorite hot springs pool, reading a book (or several), blogging, baking bread, or hanging out with her family and friends. You can pre-order a free copy of Susan's upcoming book, "On the Way Home" by registering here.
Copyright 2014, Susan Schiller, http://TeamFamilyOnline.com. For reprint permission for any private or commercial use, in any form of media, please contact Susan Schiller.
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