Learning to Trust Again

    Learning to trust again, is a long slow process. Forgiving is easy
forgetting, almost impossible. The deeper the hurt, the longer it
takes to heal and the farther the trip to forgetting, or at least learning
to live with the pain.
    The quicker we can get help and counseling, the quicker the
healing process can begin. We all tend to hide our feelings and
really bury our deep emotional hurts. As we bury our hurts, we
also build walls to protect ourselves. The longer the hurt stays
buried, the more walls we build to protect ourselves.
    These walls around our hurts, also prevent those we love, the
most, from getting close to us. Love is being vulnerable to not
only ourselves, but vulnerable to others. That includes our
spouse and children.
    Our walls prevent us from not only receiving the love we long
for, but also keeps us, from giving the love we want to. Our walls
around our emotional hurts, keep us from loving ourselves the
way that God has planned for us.
    Love thy neighbor as you love yourself. Our love for others
can only go as deep, as we love ourselves. For those of us that
have been abused, physically or emotionally, that makes it hard
on those that love us. While we protect our hurt, we close out
those that want to help us, both professionally, like psychiatrists
or counselors, as well as family.
    Learning to trust again, learning to love, are all important to
God and us, His children. The more we can love ourselves, the
more  we can love others.
    The more we are able to love, the more God can use us to love

others. That is a good, positive, and expanding kind of love.