Suffocating

More than once in my life I have come to a place where I feel cornered, like I can't breathe because if I do everything will only get worse. Sometimes the situation takes weeks to resolve, but other times it takes a few years.  You may have felt this way before, some refer to it as a Catch 22. No matter which way you turn, or which choice you make the outcome is terrible. For me Catch 22 makes me feel like I am being stepped on, and all of the people that I believed to be friends, are just sitting there and watching it happen.

That feeling has surfaced again, but this time it's not happening to me. It is happening in my home. The child that we adopted a few years ago has tormented, and working hard to break our family apart. It took us a long time to realize what was going on, and the child admitted that she was/is trying to get between all of us. Hearing that made me want to vomit. My strong God loving home was being "infiltrated" and no one on the outside could see it. This child has many issues, and I do not blame her for the issues themselves. When we were out in public as a family, she was an angel and this sweet girl who joined the family. Once we got home she changed back to her normal, angry, hateful, harmful self. To everyone else, when we punished her we were scolded for being harsh. I can't tell you how many times we heard that we are not treating her fairly or justly. Each person that said something cut off more and more of the air that we could breathe.

My parents won't give up on this child because they adopted the child as their own. They are fighting so hard to get her all of the help that they can. My heart is not where it should be where she is concerned because when I look at her I see how Satan is using her, and I forget that though she is being used by Satan, she is not Satan. That, however, is a matter all of its own. After about a year of the tormenting and harm that she caused, someone finally saw it and believed what we have been saying. It is so hard to get support because our friends and family pass judgement on this situation before they know everything.

Yet again we are in the situation of being stepped on, but this time it seems that our friends and help are the ones doing the stepping. It was so hard for us to look for help and accept help because we don't want to step outside of the path that God has set for each of us. I am tired of being silent and watching as my parents, and my family fighting for help with no one by their side. I should have turned to God a long time ago, but I figured that since we were getting help the Lord must have already answered the prayer. I was mistaken, I didn't really listen to the answer, because I just wanted the problem to go away. Now things are getting worse, and maybe it's God's way of reminding me who is in control.

Though it feels like we are suffocating, God is reminding us that He is in control and promises that, "No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgement you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me," says the Lord. Isaiah 54:17

I challenge you to stand up and be the help and support to anyone that has tribulation in their lives. Rather than pass judgement, offer support and love. Pray for God to give you understanding in the situation that someone else is facing. Do not be the one that suffocates a friend or makes assumptions about what a friend is going through. If you are the one that feels like you are suffocating, breathe and know that God is here, and He loves you, and He will ALWAYS take care of you, even if no one else does. Remember to pray, because God will listen.