The Power of "Get Up"

Early one morning, I was leaving early to go to work. Everyone else in the house was sleep. It was still dark as night outside. I went to quietly go out the door that opens to the garage. It was very dark in there. I would have thought to turn on the light to see the steps leading to the floor of the garage. Well, silly me. I took a step with my right foot thinking the next thing I would touch is the concrete. But as if in slow motion, I fell forward missing the other two steps below and landed on my left knee and side, along with having both of my bags in tow hitting the floor too. Needless to say, I did not even scream or cry. I said "ouch" silently as I landed. The pain was great at the moment. So there I was laying on the concrete floor next to the laundry machines and the trash can on the other side. I thought for a moment that I should not be so quick to get up just yet.

Now, I had a choice to make. I could either lay there and cry out for help trying to draw unnecessary attention or feeling helpless. Or, I could take my time, slowly get up, and gently make steps to walk toward my car so I could drive to work. In that moment, the Spirit of God spoke to me and said "the power is not in how you fall. It is in getting up."

I realized that the objective of Satan is to keep us in a place of bondage to think we can't move beyond our past. I admit that I used to allow my past to control me for so many years. I was married twice before. To be honest, I did not think I deserved to be loved for real because how I was treated by the my ex-husbands. Through the verbal, mental, and physical abuse, infidelity, fear, and pain, I was an emotional case. I thought who would be able to love after two men decided to leave after all I thought I've done to be a good wife. But God helped me to realize that my ex-husbands did not possess the Heart of God to know how to love me as I needed to be. Truth is, you would not treat your spouse in a hurtful and harmful way if your heart is pure before God. I had to accept the fact that God did me a favor by releasing me from those relationships. It was clear that neither of my ex-husbands had no God at all in their heart. So, they did not possess the ability to love me unconditionally period. However, I allowed what they did to me to control how I viewed love. It affected my current marriage in the early years. My husband, who does have the Heart of God for me, was giving me what I needed but I did not know how to receive because I've been hurt so deeply.

It took a long time for this strange girl to come around to the fact to accept love as God designed. I did eventually forgive my ex-husbands for their indiscretions. It also took a while for me to change my mindset to not allow past experiences that knocked me down to imprison me. I mean to keep me from moving forward. We must be careful to not allow any negative thinking even when negative things happen. We have to make the choice to either stay down and let the devil beat us up about our mistakes and past things we can't change. Or, we can make the decision to believe that we can get up and use that power to move on and be productive in fulfilling the purpose of God. I found a game changer that has pushed me further into greatness. It's the "Power of Get-Up."

Proverbs 24:16 says "For a righteous man may fall seven times, And rise again..." The key word here is "rise". So even if you are a believer living holy as best as you can, you are even subject to fall. But there is hope in knowing that God has already given you the power to get up again.

So simply be encouraged. There is recovery after the fall. Use your power of "get up." And move on to enjoy the best days of your life. God is indeed turning it around for you.

Blessings and peace from your strange girl,
Elder Twanna House

(c) 2013 The Chronicles of a Strange Girl by Elder Twanna House