Healing by Grace
May 14, 2010
by Linda Barolet
A few months ago when I was riding in the car, my daughter was asked how she felt about her mom going to a different church from hers. (I went to her church for 16 years before attending UPC.) My daughter’s response was, “I don’t mind at all because she is healing there.” As I have attended UPC, the ongoing message has been grace. I was once told by a significant person in my life that if he could want anything for me it would be that I would go to a school of grace and be bathed continuously in that truth. He has his desire. Last Sunday in Sunday School as we were sharing with each other (in particular I was sharing about my weakness of often seeing an “oversized pointing and blaming finger” pointing directly at me), a woman at the table said that I have come to the right place because I would be bathed in grace. When I first visited UPC I was 113 lbs, 5’8”, and just out of a behavioral hospital due to experiencing delusions from post traumatic symptoms of my past. My first visits at UPC were with great heart ache and crying. Now, I have gained 20 lbs! I laugh a lot. I have loved opening my home to others to serve them and share the love of Christ with my three daughters. I like playing on the softball team. I can’t wait to go to church and hear about God’s grace, His healing, and His beautiful commands to us. You see, He is a good Father and all the good gifts as these are from Him. He continues to bless me through Mike’s preaching, the worship, and the women and men of UPC. A woman is discipling me now and I can’t tell you how much I have discovered by going through the “Out of the Darkness” book with her. It has been the right time to go back through the past with the right person. While we go through the book, God is impressing upon me through His Spirit to memorize Psalm 105 which is so much about thanksgiving and remembering all He has done. It has been my anchor as I go through the darkness of my past which I often dread. I am blessed. I am being blessed.