#5,
I think we have all been abused in one way or another by someone at some time. I'm sure there is a reason for it. Maybe to help us not to abuse others. Maybe to help us learn to rely only on God and to hold our heads high with our eyes on Him regardless of what is going on around us.

So many people, especially women, seem to choose to remain victims. They live in that identity forever. They dwell on how they have been victimized and use it as an excuse for all their mistakes. As you said, some people seem far too comfortable with the 'victim' identity. Maybe because it is the only identity they have. And it works for them. Identifying ourselves as victims is easy. We always have an excuse and we can just relax knowing we can blame others for our mistakes.

But we also have the option, even though it is difficult, to pull ourselves together and move on. We can choose to move past the comfort of the victim identity and establish ourselves as strong independent women responsible for our own failures and beneficiaries of our own success, knowing that success can be more frightening than failure.

Either way, it is up to us to choose another identity then with the help of our God to live up to it. It is certainly not the easiest way. It's difficult to take responsibility for our own lives and make it the best we can, but it is the adult thing to do and we can all do it if we just decide to stop using excuses, stop blinking, stop dodging, and stop flushing. We have to choose to stop being a victim.

I could be a victim too, but work toward being independent instead. Sometimes I'm closer than other times. With God's help, I think I'm making progress. Hopefully we all are.

smile

[ March 18, 2006, 04:11 PM: Message edited by: smilinize ]