Participants:
Series Code: CW
Program Code: CW000052S
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00:00 (soothing instrumental music)
00:03 - Welcome, everyone. 00:05 We're excited to share some country wisdom with you. 00:07 - King Solomon had a thing or two to say 00:09 about the path to wisdom. 00:11 In Proverbs 4, he wrote, 00:13 "Let your eyes look directly forward 00:16 and your gaze be straight before you. 00:19 Keep straight the path of your feet 00:20 and all your ways will be sure." 00:23 - Join us now for "Country Wisdom." 00:32 (mysterious music) 00:39 Are you depressed? 00:41 Have you got problems in life? 00:42 I mean, we all have problems, 00:44 but have you felt like you wanted to go a step further? 00:47 You should stay right here 00:49 because we have an incredible story for you. 00:53 Thank you so much for coming today 00:54 and sharing your amazing story. 00:56 - Yeah, definitely. 00:58 Yeah, so my name is Danique, and I'm from the Netherlands. 01:02 I'm half Dutch, half South African. 01:05 And my parents, they met in South Africa 01:10 where my mother's from. 01:12 My dad moved there in his early 20s. 01:15 He's an atheist. 01:16 My mom was a Christian, 01:17 but kind of started falling away from the church, 01:20 started clubbing and met my dad. 01:24 Moved in together, got married. 01:26 And unfortunately she didn't marry the right man. 01:29 When they moved to the Netherlands, 01:30 he got very abusive physically, 01:33 and I grew up in that kind of household with my brother. 01:36 - Physically with the whole family or just your mom or? 01:40 - Actually, from what I remember, mostly my brother. 01:43 He would, for some reason it was my brother 01:46 who was getting on his nerves a lot. 01:47 I don't know why. 01:49 But yeah, I remember one time when we were all watching TV, 01:54 everything's fine, and somehow my brother said something 01:57 that my dad didn't like, and next thing you know, 02:00 I'm seeing my brother next to my dad 02:04 and my dad is holding his wrists. 02:06 And I just remember so vividly 02:07 that he had this demonic look in his eyes, 02:09 and he would just look into my brother's eyes 02:11 and squeeze his wrists. 02:14 And my brother was just screaming out of pain. 02:17 And I thought, "He's gonna break his wrists, 02:18 and he gonna kill him." 02:19 And I thought he was gonna die. 02:21 And my mom, you know, 02:22 you have fight or flight when that happens, 02:24 when you just freeze or you do something. 02:26 And my mom stood there. 02:28 And I was like, I have to do something, and so I- 02:31 - How old were you? 02:32 - I think I was maybe 10 years old. 02:34 My brother, probably 12, something like that. 02:37 And I remember just trying to peel off my dad's hands 02:41 and he didn't even notice. 02:42 He was so like a demon looking at my brother. 02:47 And later on, years later, as I went through therapy, 02:50 I realized that was a trauma for me. 02:53 That it kept haunting me over and over 02:55 and including feeling abandoned by my mother 02:58 for all of those years, 02:59 not having removed us outta the situation, 03:02 in that moment, not doing anything, 03:03 or even afterwards, my brother getting the attention 03:06 'cause he had the physical abuse the most, 03:08 and I was not being asked, 03:09 "How are you doing? 03:10 Are you okay?" 03:12 - Therapy, how did you end up in therapy? 03:15 Why? 03:17 - At first I didn't think I needed it, 03:19 'cause this was many years later. 03:20 It was, while I was a teenager, 03:22 I got really depressed, actually, 03:24 because I was bullied in school. 03:27 You know, you're really insecure 03:28 because of what's going on at home, 03:29 and the the mean kids pick up on that. 03:31 And so they started bullying me in school, 03:33 which made my situation even worse 03:35 to the point where I became suicidal. 03:37 - Was this, you're in the Netherlands? 03:38 - Yes, I'm in the Netherlands, yes. 03:39 I was like probably 11, 12. 03:42 I was in high school at 12 and got severely bullied 03:45 and there was a time when I got home 03:48 and I was actually hitting the wall. 03:51 I was so mad that I was punching the wall, 03:53 and I walked up the stairs to my brother's room 03:57 and I sat down in his chair, and I saw a knife, 04:00 unfolded open pocket knife on the floor. 04:02 And I picked it up and I thought, 04:04 "I'm gonna kill myself right now." 04:06 And I held it to my wrist and I heard a voice that said, 04:08 "Don't do it." 04:09 And I threw it on the floor. 04:11 And then I said, "Okay, I'm not doing it." 04:14 And I remember sitting down against the wall 04:16 and I was just crying. 04:17 And then my dad came home 04:18 and I pretended like nothing had happened. 04:20 And then I told my mom, and that's how eventually 04:23 I got into therapy. 04:25 I was talking to a social worker in high school. 04:28 He recommended therapy. 04:29 My mom took me to therapy. 04:30 Didn't do that much, though. 04:32 Just didn't feel like they really understood my situation. 04:36 In fact, I also went to a child psych, 04:38 or a regular psychiatrist at one point. 04:40 He said, "Oh, you need one session, you're done." 04:42 I thought, "One session? 04:44 I'm suicidal." 04:45 He just clearly didn't understand children. 04:47 - And one session will fix it. 04:48 - Yeah, he clearly didn't understand children at all. 04:50 Yeah, so I think at one point 04:54 I just forgot a couple of my appointments 04:58 at this other place where I was at now. 05:00 Like it was like an actual institution 05:01 for children and psychology. 05:04 And they just never called me, so I just stopped going. 05:06 Like, you know, you think they have a responsibility 05:09 for this kind of stuff, 05:10 especially since I shared I was suicidal. 05:11 But they just didn't say anything. 05:13 - So you shared with them you were suicidal 05:15 and still they said, "Ah, you don't need any more." 05:17 - So this was another institution. 05:18 I went to a psychologist or psychiatrist first. 05:22 He said one session. 05:23 Then I went to another place and then they finally said, 05:26 "Okay, yeah, you have a couple sessions." 05:28 But then they never called me back 05:29 when I didn't show up anymore. 05:31 - It's hard to imagine. 05:32 - Yes, it is. 05:33 - Yeah, it's very messed up, unfortunately. 05:37 Yeah, so I was about 13, 14 05:44 when I had a friend in high school, my one and only friend, 05:46 'cause I was very unpopular, who introduced me to Jesus. 05:49 I grew up with a understanding that there was a God 05:53 because my mom was a Christian-ish, you know. 05:55 Like she didn't read the Bible, never went to church, 05:57 or maybe she read like a Psalm in the evening and that's it. 05:59 But never talked about it with us. 06:00 But I believe that there was a God, 06:02 and I guess God knew that I was searching. 06:04 And so I- - God always knows. 06:07 - He always knows, yes. 06:08 So my friend was a Protestant Christian 06:11 and she introduced me to this church 06:14 and I went to church with her. 06:16 But they weren't very, like, hospitable. 06:19 They didn't really greet me or anything like that. 06:21 And so it was easy not to show up, you know. 06:24 The only people really knew who I was 06:26 were the people in my youth group that I went to. 06:28 But yeah, so I eventually, I did ask my mom 06:31 would she come with me, and she did. 06:33 And so we started having church there. 06:35 And it was good, but like I said, didn't go that often. 06:39 At the same time I found these books in our attic 06:44 hidden around the corner. 06:46 And they were Christian books that my grandmother, 06:48 my mom's mother, had given us years ago, 06:51 right after I was born. 06:52 By this time she had passed away already. 06:54 And I found these books and I started reading them 06:56 and they were for children. 06:58 So for me, even though I was a little bit older 06:59 than what the target age was for, 07:02 it was easy for me to understand 07:03 what these books were about. 07:05 And I started learning about the Bible. 07:07 And I even found this children's Bible, 07:09 started reading that one. 07:11 And then when I was 15, I went to South Africa 07:14 to visit my family with my parents and my brother. 07:18 And I guess you'd call it some divine appointments 07:22 where God worked in my heart. 07:26 I ended up getting these Bible studies about Daniel 07:29 from my cousins. 07:30 It might be too long of a story, 07:32 but it's like lots of divine appointments 07:34 where God was just putting all the pieces together for me. 07:36 - We like to hear about divine appointments, right? 07:38 - You wanna hear it? 07:38 Okay. - Sure. 07:39 - At least tell us like one of the ones 07:42 where it was very clear. 07:44 - Right, okay. 07:45 So I went for a walk with my aunt and my mom, 07:49 and it was just the three of us. 07:50 Now, there was an evening, 07:53 and my cousins were making crepes with Nutella. 07:56 And- - Ooh. 07:57 - Yeah, and that's the important detail because- 07:59 - [Jim] Your favorite. 08:00 - [Janice] We just ate lunch and yet I'm going, 08:01 "Ooh, Nutella." 08:03 - (laughs) Well, I was a teenager. 08:06 There's crepes and Nutella. 08:08 There's this neighborhood walk that I can go on, 08:10 or eat crepes with Nutella. 08:11 Why would I go on the walk in the boring neighborhood 08:13 when I'm a teenager who doesn't care about that stuff? 08:16 But somehow I ended up got walking with my mom. 08:18 And at this point my mom's sister 08:20 had come back to the church, 08:22 because before that her three siblings and her 08:24 had all kind of fallen way. 08:26 So she was now reaching out to us. 08:28 And I asked her all these silly questions. 08:32 Like, I grew up playing a lot of video games 08:34 and watching a lot of TV and I was like, 08:36 "So, you know, like, I download these games, 08:39 I'm not supposed to, I'm not paying for them. 08:41 Am I stealing?" 08:42 Like these really innocent questions. 08:44 And so then at the door she's like, 08:47 "Hey, have you heard about Daniel?" 08:50 I'm like, "Who is this kid that I'm supposed to know?" 08:53 But she was referring to the book of Daniel in the Bible. 08:56 And I was like, "Oh, I never even read that book before." 09:01 But my mom, she's like, she's telling my mom, 09:03 "You should tell her about Daniel." 09:04 And she's like, "Pfft, whatever." 09:06 So I go to my room, and before that, 09:08 my grandpa had given me a Bible, my South African grandpa, 09:13 and that I had found, it was another divine appointment. 09:16 Like, I shouldn't have had that Bible at the time. 09:17 So I go and open the book of Daniel. 09:20 And on the next day, 09:21 we're supposed to fly back to the Netherlands. 09:23 My cousin comes up to me, my aunt's daughter, 09:26 showing me a study on Daniel, and she makes a copy for me, 09:29 and I go home and I study it 09:30 and then start growing in the Lord. 09:32 And I told, asked him later, and my aunt said, 09:34 "I had never told her to do that." 09:36 Like they had no clue that she had talked about Daniel. 09:38 And then she gives me study on Daniel. 09:40 It's like, it was all God who led in that. 09:42 - And you began falling in love through the book of Daniel. 09:45 - I was. 09:46 - [Jim] That's amazing. 09:47 - I mean, it's an odd book to begin with. 09:50 Even though I had some, you know, 09:51 a little bit understanding of the Bible. 09:54 But that was like the first thing 09:56 because I think for me the prophecies made sense. 09:58 It was like they talked about the time that I lived in 10:03 and they told me everything I needed to know about, 10:03 like, what's gonna happen now, 10:05 what's happened just before I lived, 10:07 what's gonna happen in the future. 10:09 And I understood the Bible was real 10:11 and that the Bible was telling me the truth 10:14 because there was no way that these historical figures 10:17 that we know from history actually existed, 10:19 there's evidence for that in archeology and everything 10:22 and historical writings, 10:23 that they said all these things about my time, 10:25 and we know from history that they happened. 10:27 And then I'm like, but then I can also believe 10:29 that other things will happen, 10:30 and I can believe that the rest of the Bible 10:32 is also the truth and that I can believe it and trust it. 10:36 - Daniel too, for me, you read that, you know, 10:38 Nebuchadnezzar statue. - Right. 10:40 - Outlining the kingdoms and studying history, which I love. 10:44 And sure enough, there they line up. 10:46 - Yep. 10:47 - For me it just gives you 10:49 a firmer foundation for your faith. 10:51 It's like no matter what kind of craziness 10:53 is going on around me, I know God has this. 10:57 - Right, yeah. 10:58 - You mentioned downloading a lot of video games 11:01 and playing all that kind of thing. 11:03 Do you think looking back that that helped your depression, 11:07 and took you in a direction that wasn't the greatest? 11:12 - You know, I think for me, 11:14 video games and TV was a way to numb the pain 11:18 that I was going through. 11:19 And video games, my brother and I were both 11:21 very much into it. 11:22 It was a way to almost be able to live a different life. 11:30 You know, like you have these characters 11:31 and they have it well, and they might be superheroes 11:36 and they can attack these people 11:37 and do all these crazy things. 11:39 It makes you feel better 11:40 and it makes you forget about your pain that you have. 11:41 - Fantasy is always better than real life. 11:43 - Right, right, exactly. 11:45 It was an escapism for me. 11:47 And it's actually something that, 11:48 not the video game part, but later on in life, 11:51 came back for me where I started 11:52 having an addiction to YouTube, actually, 11:54 when I had my second time with depression. 11:59 - Explain a YouTube addiction. 12:01 - Yeah, so... 12:03 - Do you know what YouTube is, Jim? 12:05 (Danique and Jim laughing) 12:08 You're a little older than I am. 12:09 - Yes, grandma, I do. 12:10 It's okay. (laughs) 12:12 - Yeah, so I guess, shall I start off with first 12:17 like how I got depressed again 12:19 and then how I got- 12:21 - Sure, go ahead, wherever you want to. 12:22 - Sure, yeah. 12:23 So later on, I moved to the United States 12:29 in, I think it was 2016, started, 12:30 volunteering for organization, a ministry, 12:33 and really felt like the Lord had led me there, 12:36 and other many miracles that He had wrought to get me here. 12:41 And then I got a job offer another ministry. 12:44 So now I was officially on a work visa 12:46 and I could stay here longer. 12:48 And it was 2017. 12:51 This was around the time that I knew 12:53 I had to leave the one ministry 12:54 and I had to go back to the Netherlands to get my visa. 12:57 I remember that I was dealing a lot, 13:01 struggling a lot with my dad. 13:03 He was, you know, bugging me and texting me 13:05 and kind of pushed me to a relationship with him. 13:07 And I started feeling more and more like, 13:08 I don't know if I really want 13:10 a relationship with him anymore. 13:11 Like, I just felt this growing discomfort with him. 13:14 And at that time, I remember I was outside with some friends 13:21 and their grandparents studying the Bible together, 13:22 and I felt this weight on my shoulders. 13:25 And I remember going to my phone 13:27 and I just blocked my dad's number 13:29 and I deleted it from my phone. 13:31 And then we drove home that afternoon, 13:33 I told my friends, "You know what, 13:34 lately I've kind of been having these like 13:36 thoughts of suicide. 13:38 And I'm not gonna do anything. 13:40 I just, this is weird." 13:41 And they were kind of like, 13:42 "Whoa, you don't just have that. 13:44 That's odd." 13:45 Well, that same night, we came home 13:48 and I was sharing a room with a friend and I was in bed. 13:52 I got up, I put my clothes on, and I drove off. 13:55 And I wanted to commit suicide. 13:59 I was so depressed, all of a sudden, it just like crashed. 14:03 And I remember seeing train tracks here in the area, 14:07 thinking to myself, 14:08 "If only I could just drive my car off this cliff 14:10 or this hill and just wait for a train to come." 14:15 And it was downhill from there on out. 14:18 It was months of depression. 14:20 - Multiple- - But you didn't do it. 14:21 - I didn't do it. - You're here. 14:22 - I'm here, yeah. 14:23 - But why didn't you do it? 14:24 What got you to that edge and you didn't do it? 14:27 - You know, there was always this feeling of hope, I think. 14:33 This feeling of there's something out there 14:34 and I just can't do it. 14:36 I got so close to it. 14:37 There was one time when I was driving, 14:41 and I had rope in my trunk and I thought, 14:44 "I'm gonna, I'm just going, it's finally gonna happen. 14:46 I'm such a wimp for not doing this. 14:49 I'm so fed up with life." 14:51 And I drove on the freeway, and at that moment, 14:53 I thought, "I need help." 14:55 And I was trying to call my friends, nobody picked up. 14:56 And I was like, "See, they've all abandoned me. 14:57 They don't care about me." 14:58 Which is a lie, of course, but that's what I thought. 15:01 When I again heard a voice that said, "Pull over." 15:04 And I pulled over on the freeway, on the shoulder, 15:07 in the middle of the night, and I started crying, 15:10 and I turned around, I went back home 15:11 and I was like, "I can't believe I'm still alive. 15:13 I really thought this was it. 15:14 I was gonna do it." 15:15 So I heard that same voice again. 15:17 It saved me again. 15:18 And yeah, months, months of living on the edge. 15:23 And I shouldn't be alive. 15:25 I shouldn't be, with how close I got to suicide. 15:28 And in that time I completely rejected God as well, 15:31 because God is a father figure. 15:34 And I thought if my earthly father's like this, 15:37 who says you're better than that? 15:38 Why did you allow these things to happen? 15:42 - Jim, you just recently finished a new book, 15:45 "The Plan of Love." 15:46 I just read it and I actually loved it. 15:49 I read it all in one sitting, 15:51 over the course of the same day, anyway. 15:54 Where can people get it? 15:55 - They actually go to talkingdonkeyinternational.org. 15:58 And actually if you give 16:00 a gift to the ministry of $12 or more, 16:02 we'll send you the book completely free. 16:03 Talkingdonkeyinternational.org. 16:06 Actually, if you give a gift to the ministry of $12 or more, 16:08 we'll send you the book completely free 16:10 and I'll autograph it for you also. 16:12 (uplifting music) 16:24 - The Apostle Paul counseled us to fill our minds 16:27 with those things that are good and that deserve praise. 16:30 Things that are true, noble, right, pure, 16:34 lovely, and honorable. 16:36 What does that mean? 16:37 How do we put that into practice? 16:39 Well, if we follow the word of God, 16:42 we will be blessed in ways we can hardly imagine. 16:45 I have some information for you. 16:48 It's called "Secrets of Peak Mental Health." 16:51 If you would like a free copy, 16:53 go to talkingdonkeyinternational.org 16:56 and request offer 116, "Secrets of Peak Mental Health." 17:08 - And it even got to a point 17:10 where I was going through therapy, 17:11 and memory started coming back 17:13 that my dad had also sexually abused me, including rape. 17:18 And at first I doubted my own thoughts. 17:21 I thought maybe brain's playing tricks on me. 17:23 It's like, this is impossible. 17:24 How can you forget this kind of stuff? 17:26 But then I start reading these books by these, you know, 17:29 neurologists, psychiatrists, very renowned authors, 17:34 renowned scientists you'd assume would know 17:37 some stuff about the brain. 17:39 And in that book he quoted this or shared a story 17:41 about a sociologist who had done a study 17:44 on women who had been hospitalized for sexual abuse as girls 17:50 before the age of 12. 17:53 And from what I remember, I was about 10 or 11 17:54 when it happened to me, the rape, and before that as well. 17:57 And so they were hospitalized, they had the records. 18:02 They went back to these adult women. 18:04 The majority of them didn't remember. 18:05 And their memories started coming back 18:07 as soon as they told them, or they didn't even come back, 18:09 and they have to show them the records 18:10 to prove to that this has happened to you. 18:12 And I thought, "I'm not crazy. 18:14 This has actually happened to me." 18:16 And then everything- 18:17 - Out of self-preservation. 18:18 - [Danique] Yes. 18:19 - Your 11 year old brain just blocked it out. 18:21 - It just blocks it off, yeah. 18:23 And actually, I feel like I got answers 18:26 to so many questions I had had. 18:27 Because growing up there were so many things 18:29 that had happened in my life that I couldn't understand, 18:35 that I was just like, "What is going on here?" 18:37 Even to the point where when I was very young, 18:41 I had some sexual thoughts 18:43 or I had lots of nightmares 18:44 of sexual interactions with people 18:46 and I woke up either crying or deeply ashamed. 18:49 And I was way too young to have all these things. 18:52 And I just remember feeling so dirty and ashamed. 18:55 I was like, "Why am I like this? 18:56 This doesn't make sense." 18:57 And I just couldn't understand for years. 19:00 And I felt so dirty, 19:01 and I had nightmares at one point for months 19:04 that my dad raped me. 19:05 And I was on the phone with my mom. 19:07 I was like, "Dad never did this. 19:08 He would never do this. 19:09 Why is this happening?" 19:10 And everything made sense now. 19:13 - What did your mother say? 19:15 Was she unaware? 19:16 - She didn't know. 19:17 And the thing is, I don't think I ever told my mom 19:20 because she was not very present. 19:22 She was not available. 19:24 She had her own emotional problems she was facing. 19:26 She was being physically, you know, 19:28 beaten, abused by my dad, 19:29 that I just didn't feel like I could trust her 19:33 to tell her these kind of things. 19:35 And there are many times when stuff happened 19:37 and I just didn't tell her because like, why would I? 19:40 - But there's where you begin getting those feelings of, 19:44 "I don't want to talk to my dad." 19:45 These things just started coming. 19:46 "I'm blocking my dad." 19:47 You didn't know why, 19:48 but then all of a sudden now you're processing. 19:51 - Yeah, I just thought, 19:52 "Okay, it has to do with the physical abuse." 19:53 But I always thought to myself, 19:54 "But the physical abuse wasn't that bad." 19:57 My brother got the worst of it. 19:58 And I always thought, "Why did I feel this bad about this? 20:01 Why do I feel like I have to go this far?" 20:03 But it did happen and, and now I realized, 20:06 yeah, it makes sense. 20:08 And I actually developed PTSD. 20:10 I got severely depressed, like I said. 20:13 I started having more nightmares. 20:15 I started having flashbacks, actually, 20:17 of the physical abuse, later on the sexual abuse, 20:20 which might mean, you know, you might hear sound. 20:24 Like I could hear my boss walking up the stairs, 20:26 and he had the key chains, you know, 20:28 and it sounded like a belt to me that was coming off. 20:31 And I just felt terrible. 20:33 And I just sat there and I just froze. 20:34 And through therapy I learned, telling yourself the truth, 20:38 or it's called reframing, 20:41 where you look around in your environment, 20:43 like you might like touch something or, you know, 20:46 you feel the texture, you realize, this is where I am. 20:48 I'm not there, I'm here. 20:50 Or you might listen, like the birds right now. 20:55 I could listen to the birds and be like, 20:56 "Okay, the beautiful birds, 20:57 God's creation." 20:59 It helps to calm me down. 21:00 Like, God is here. 21:01 He's here and I'm safe. 21:02 And that helped a lot throughout that process 21:05 that I went through. 21:07 - And speaking of that process now, 21:08 where is God in your mind during that time? 21:13 - Yeah, so you know, I completely rejected God, 21:17 like I said earlier. 21:18 I just didn't get it. 21:20 I didn't understand Him. 21:21 And at one point a friend of mine said to me, 21:24 and it's funny because she was struggling 21:26 with her own doubts with God. 21:27 But she said to me, "Danique, you keep saying 21:30 that you wanna give God another chance. 21:33 So why don't you just do it now?" 21:35 And we prayed together, and we cried, 21:37 and I said, "Okay God, I will give you another chance, 21:41 but this is your last chance. 21:43 I need you to prove yourself to me 21:45 that you are not like my dad. 21:47 That you are what the Bible says you are." 21:51 And so I told Him that, 21:53 and I was very honest with God. 21:54 And I always tell people, "You have to be honest with God. 21:57 You have to tell him what you're really thinking." 21:59 And so months went by, but over the course of months, 22:03 I started seeing more and more of His character. 22:04 And actually I saw through my friends who cared about me, 22:07 who didn't abandon me during my depression, 22:09 who didn't walk away from me, 22:10 but who were there to encourage me. 22:12 And when I had my dark moments, 22:13 that they were there to help me and support me. 22:17 And that helped so much to see that God was real. 22:21 And eventually my relationship was restored, 22:25 but it was more balanced, 22:26 because before I actually struggle with some legalism, 22:28 and now it was balanced, where I said, 22:30 "You know what God? 22:31 It's really about you, 22:32 and my relationship with you and with Jesus." 22:35 And everything else will fall into place 22:37 if I just focus on having a relationship with Jesus. 22:39 - Tell us about your life now with God. 22:42 - Yeah, so, you know, I feel like my life is much better. 22:49 I actually overcame my depression and PTSD 22:51 a couple of years ago, when I went through, 22:54 it's called the Nedley Community, let's see, 22:57 Community Depression and Anxiety Recovery program. 23:01 - [Janice] That's a great program. 23:02 - It's a great program, yes. 23:03 And they have it all over the country. 23:05 Went through that, friend paid for it, 23:08 and went from major depression to no depression at all. 23:12 And after that I actually started 23:15 helping out with the program. 23:16 Took the training and and helping other people now. 23:20 And you know, I'm working at a ministry, 23:22 and I am just happy. 23:26 I'm a happy, happy individual, 23:28 and my relationship with God has been restored, 23:30 and it's been absolutely incredible. 23:32 - And honestly, it takes a fair amount of courage 23:34 to come on a worldwide television program. 23:37 - Yeah, yeah, no, for sure. 23:39 - And we would all like to pretend 23:40 that we've always had it this together. 23:41 - Oh yeah, I know I have. 23:43 - And we've never had issues. 23:44 - Right, yeah. 23:45 And I think that a lot of people, 23:47 they may look at people like us and, you know, 23:50 we've got nice clothes on and we have a smile on our face 23:52 and I think that there's nothing going on. 23:54 But yesterday I was doing some homeless outreach 23:58 and we're talking to homeless people, 23:59 and I was so thankful 'cause I can relate to 24:02 some of their stories. 24:04 And when they see you and they see like who you are 24:08 and then they understand where you come from, 24:10 they realize that there's hope 24:11 and that it doesn't have to be this way. 24:14 - Yeah. 24:15 You know, there was only, there was one point in my life 24:17 where I didn't kill myself 24:18 'cause I was too chicken to do it. 24:21 You know, I think many of them 24:22 go through some kind of thing. 24:24 You know, you did. 24:25 - I did, at 16, the first time. 24:30 People out there who are gonna be watching this program, 24:33 maybe particularly females, because I could be mistaken, 24:38 but it seems like young women, teenagers, young women, 24:42 have more of these issues. 24:45 - [Danique] Right. 24:46 - Especially, you might call them daddy issues, 24:47 you might say body issues. 24:49 Someone who's watching this and is looking for a lifeline, 24:54 what would you say to her? 24:56 - You know, I struggled with body issues after this, 24:58 which I know is very common when you're sexually abused, 25:01 assaulted or raped, because your body's used 25:03 as a product for someone else's pleasure or anger. 25:10 And I couldn't find my body beautiful. 25:13 I thought I was fat even though I was skinny. 25:16 And I kept telling myself that I was ugly. 25:18 But I went to therapy and what I learned 25:21 is to tell myself that I'm made in God's image 25:26 and what helped me the most is to think He died for me. 25:29 And if He died for me, that He says, 25:32 "Your body has value." 25:34 And He made me. 25:35 - Amen, amen. 25:36 - And even though sin has, you know, 25:40 made it that we're not like Adam and Eve 25:43 or like 100% perfect, 25:45 I believe that I'm perfect in Jesus's eyes 25:47 because He made me and He loves me and He died for me. 25:50 And He says, "Your body is of immeasurable worth, 25:55 and there's nothing, there's no one who can replace you." 25:58 That's one thing I learned through this experience 26:00 is that if I wasn't around here, 26:02 there will be a hole in God's heart. 26:04 There will be emptiness and I'll be forever missed by God 26:08 and by my mother, who loves me, 26:11 and who have a very good relationship now with, by the way, 26:14 and by all the angels. 26:17 And there would be a mansion in heaven, 26:18 'cause the Bible says that He has mansions for us 26:20 ready when we go to heaven. 26:22 And it would be forever empty because it was there for me, 26:25 because He died for me. 26:27 - Amen, amen. 26:28 Janice, why don't you wrap it up for us today? 26:29 - I am just so thankful that you told the story. 26:32 There are similarities and that's why I felt like 26:36 other women watching this, you know, 26:40 we always feel like, "I'm the only one who thinks this way. 26:43 I'm the only one feeling this bad." 26:46 And it's just not true. 26:48 And I know for me, the best decision I ever made 26:50 was to stop pretending that I was okay. 26:53 You know, sometimes I am, but I'm not always. 26:57 And the only thing that gets me through 26:59 is clinging to the Lord. 27:01 - [Danique] Yeah. 27:02 - Because in His eyes, I'm more than okay. 27:06 And I'm so thankful when someone is honest 27:10 and has a story like that that we can relate to. 27:14 - Yeah. - Amen. 27:14 You know, folks, Danique said it. 27:17 She wasn't certain about God and where God was, 27:20 but God was right there with her all the time. 27:22 No matter what you're going through right now, 27:24 God is right there with you. 27:26 Just call out to Him and He will answer. 27:30 (uplifting music) 27:31 - The Apostle Paul counseled us to fill our minds 27:34 with those things that are good and that deserve praise. 27:38 Things that are true, noble, right, pure, 27:41 lovely, and honorable. 27:43 What does that mean? 27:44 How do we put that into practice? 27:47 Well, if we follow the word of God, 27:49 we will be blessed in ways we can hardly imagine. 27:53 I have some information for you. 27:55 It's called "Secrets of Peak Mental Health." 27:58 If you would like a free copy, 28:00 go to talkingdonkeyinternational.org 28:03 and request offer 116, "Secrets of Peak Mental Health." 28:10 - Thank you for watching. 28:11 Join us again for another exciting "Country Wisdom." 28:14 - See you next time. 28:15 (uplifting instrumental music) |
Revised 2022-09-28