Our scarlett letters

Dear sister, believe me when I tell you, I know the pain in your heart. It’s unbelievable at times. It’s a whirlwind and all you want to do is to be able to walk out of it, intact. There’s no hiding these types of situations. Everywhere you go, whatever you do, it’s as if YOU are the one wearing the Scarlett Letter.

A for Adultery

A for Almost but Not Quite Enough

A for Anything but This

A for Abandoned

A for All Your Shattered Dreams

A for All Exposed

A for Asking for Answers

A for Abuse
A for Alcohol
A for Adoption

Maybe you didn’t put any of these on yourself. You didn’t ask to wear the T-shirt but here it is and it feels like it fits. Maybe you bought the Tshirt and had it custom made. It really doesn’t matter. What matters is that was never yours to begin with.

God had and still has a plan for your life. He promises that even the harmful things and situations, He will work out for good in your life. It takes a lot of faith to believe that when all you really see is the destruction and mess around you.

God is the one to help you clean it up. You have to let go of that Tshirt though. Exchange it for a garment of praise. For the clothing of righteousness. When all is exposed, it can hurt. It’s raw and your tender. God desires honestly of us all.

Forgive those that forced you to wear it. They did so out of fear. Because scarlet letters are contagious, don’t you know? Not really, but often times we think that. How many times have we pulled away from someone going through a hard time because it challenged our own way of thinking? If it could happen to them, maybe it can happen to us? Or we were prideful and thought something like that would NEVER happen to us, to our family. We thought we would never do such a thing. And on and on.

The reality is, mistakes happen every day. Huge ones. People fail. We fail ourselves and we fail God. We do minor stupid things and we make major, life changing wrong decisions. Yes, it feels unfair. Maybe it is. We often experience loss in life due to other people’s decisions. We may even get blamed for it.

Then what? Do we carry around that burden for the rest of our lives? Or do we step up, walk in grace and extend it, no strings attached? The real question, then, becomes; do you believe you are who God said you are?

There is no more hiding. We must be honest. We have all fallen and come short of the glory of God. That is why we need a Savior. We cannot make it in this life alone. We cannot forgive ourselves much less anyone else without the grace of God. We cannot save ourselves or anyone else. We can’t stop the pain or heal our wounds.

Yes, we can come to a place of forgiving the unthinkable—even the shame others put on us—because it was never ours to wear.