I recently returned from a large women’s retreat. The main speaker was a best-selling Christian author from a nationally recognized ministry, so the retreat drew about four hundred women from all over the United States and several foreign countries.

Nothing about the speaker’s books or the theme of the retreat was specifically geared to minister to abuse survivors. Yet whenever I voiced my own grief over the heart-breaking history of domestic abuse in my extended family, woman after woman responded with stories about abusive relationships in their own pasts.

I won’t assume that the women I spoke with represented a random sample of conference attendees. I know Holy Spirit has a way of connecting us with those who can specifically minister to our own hurts. However, the prevalence of this theme brought home to me how big a problem this really is in the church, and how little we speak out about it.

In the coming weeks, I will be sharing excerpts from my book, A Wife of Valor: Your Strategic Importance in God’s Battle Plan that touch on the topic of domestic abuse. Because it’s time to break the silence.
#domesticviolenceawarenessmonth