Healing The Hurt: Hope in Jesus, Freedom from the Past - Megan Araujo
My personal faith journey… I grew up in a family that went to church, but didn’t always live out the faith. It wasn’t until I was about 30 that I really began to develop a personal relationship with God. By then, we had our second child, and I desperately wanted to overcome negative strongholds in my life to not repeat generational traumas. Broken family relationships had left me feeling anxious and insecure. I found myself trying to fill the hole in my heart with success, perfectionism, affirmation, etc. to build my self-worth, but it never satisfied. I sought therapy, but it didn’t bring any lasting peace.
I remember deciding at the beginning of a new year, that I was going to read the Bible for the first time. I started with the New Testament, and it really opened my eyes to God’s love. I had this epiphany that God was truly a Father wanting the very best for His children. Being a Mother, I could finally understand a fraction of that endless love. I realized that the Bible wasn’t just a rulebook, but rather a guide to living your best life, because the Creator knows what’s best for His creation. The bitterness and resentment that I had towards people that had let me down, started to fade. I grew in empathy and peace. It is a sad fact of life that hurt people, hurt people. We are all broken in some way, doing the best we can with what we’ve been given (our life experiences). The key is to grow from it. We cannot let our past define us. We have to make the choice to put our hope in Christ— not ourselves, not our relationships, not success. Hope in anything other than Christ is fleeting.
He is the only thing that is forever, never-changing, and will never let you down. God’s love uplifts me in every situation. No matter what hardship comes my way, I know that God can use it for good. Whether it’s to grow my character, re-focus my priorities and bring me closer to Him, or to help others in life also going through hardships. As I have leaned on God and grown in my faith, I feel more secure. Christ is my firm foundation. As long as He is number one, everything else will fall into place.
Favorite quotes- “Lasting joy will only come when God is in the center; not when I am ‘empowered’ but when I rest in His power.”—Jennie Allen
“Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.”—C.S. Lewis
My husband, Joshua Araujo, is a local taxidermist and owner of Araujo’s Taxidermy – “Honoring God’s creation through timeless preservation.”
Specializing in shoulder mounts, European and plaque mounts, and turkey fans. Located in Murfreesboro, TN.
