It's All In Your Testimony

It’s All In Your Testimony

I don’t know if it’s from the grueling two years of Covid, the floundering economy, or the divisive and prickly way people are treating each other.  But it’s something. I hear more people complaining, struggling, and blaming all their woes on a bad childhood, a tough boss, or a political situation. Anyone or anything except themselves.

I can understand. I spent the biggest share of my life blaming broken relationships, personality quirks, fears and hang ups on my father. We didn’t get along. He was a successful business owner and he spent little time at home. He and I were oil and water. He always said I was just like my grandmothers.

I was. I loved singing, playing piano and guitar. I not only read but I loved to write. Sadly my father’s relationship with his mother was dreadful. The oldest of nine, he was kicked out of his home at the age of sixteen. But he remembered well his mother loved to sing and to write. And he resented her.

The older I got the more entrenched in writing and music I became and the more estranged I became from my father. I left home at eighteen. It took me years to finish college. Of course I blamed him.

Then a few years ago my Pastor taught that it was useless to blame our childhood experiences for the trials and tribulations in our lives.  He said we all come from dysfunctional homes in one way or another. Once we’re adults and making our own decisions we are 100% accountable for our own lives, failures and successes.

I agreed. But it never stopped me from giving a bad report about my father. This had to be boring and repetitive to my family and friends. Intellectually I knew my father’s impact was no longer relevant.

One day in prayer, I said something about my lack of confidence and mentioned how it was because of my father. I’m glad God had no more patience with that. He said, “Change your testimony. Say this: I had a great father. He was not good at nurturing but he was funny. And he did the best he could.” I was floored. Every word of that statement was true. It was brilliant. Honest and yet positive.

I have had revelation from God before. Nothing stopped me in my tracks like this. In a moment God changed my heart. He changed the way I felt about my dad. It was as if a great weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

God showed me how offenses of every kind could be eliminated if we simply changed our testimony, if we looked for the positive side of our story. Whether it’s a broken marriage, a lost job, a wayward child who never calls home, we steer our lives by the testimonies we tell.

I have tried this technique many times. It works. It always works. It can change the way you fit yourself into situations. You do not have to agree with another’s behavior. You just have to see their actions are not an excuse for you to alter your principles or your behavior.

Every situation has a second side when we remove our hurt and our offense. My father didn’t intend to hurt me. He was behaving out of his own wounds. He had no idea how to nurture because he had never been nurtured.

If you have carried an offense for long years, you might try to change your testimony. It is amazing, freeing and godly. Whatever it is you’ve embraced as your “truth” forever, try pushing your own feelings aside and looking at it again. Create a testimony from the other person’s point of view. When you blend your testimony with theirs you will be closer to reality. And you will find healing and laughter and a brighter, more accountable way to walk through life. What an awesome way for God to keep His promise to redeem the years the locust ate.