Donna Byrd (00:00)
Hello ladies. I hope you've been enjoying your nice summer treat. Did everybody get plenty of ice cream? Yum, yum. I don't think there's any treat I like better than ice cream. I keep thinking, okay, you're about outgrown this, right? It's like, I love it. And I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have tonight. But the best thing about it is fellowshiping with you ladies. It's been so sweet seeing.

So many of you here that are longtime friends and seeing people here, it's like, ⁓ this is so nice to have you here at the ladies event. So thank you for coming, making time to be with us on this Friday night. And ⁓ being as I get to be up here and talk, I have announcement I want to make. And that is I want to give a plug for more get togethers this summer. And that is we will be having a ladies summertime Bible study at night.

And it'll just be one, not one in the morning and we're gonna have all the Bible study ladies together. So I really wanna personally invite every single one of you, if you can get away, it starts July 10th, correct? Is that right? July 10th. And we're gonna be doing it on Thursday nights and it's a seven week study. So it's just a little short thing, but guess what it's gonna be about. I'm so excited. Yes, it is going to be about Jesus.

And the focus is going to be heaven. And our ⁓ teacher is Jennifer Rothschild. We have used her before as a Bible study teacher. And if you've heard her before, you just fall in love with her. She's so vivacious, so in love with Jesus. And the most incredible thing that you forget about her is she's blind. She's totally blind, but the Holy Spirit is upon her. And I just can't wait to hear.

what ⁓ she says, when faith becomes sight, is the name of her study. And so we'll be doing it here in this room at seven o'clock on Thursday nights. And one thing that will be different this year is we're not gonna be doing food. So come at a quarter till seven. And if you just want food, well, you bring your own. We're not saying you can't have food, but we're not providing it. So if you want to bring food, you're welcome to bring food. But what is this gonna?

Get Together for Fellowship and Bible Study and it'll be from seven to nine. All right? And that is, okay, so now it's time for introducing our speaker. ⁓ When we were planning this, I was just really praying about our speaker who the Lord would, generally we have testimony time during this and there was a couple of people I had thought of and ⁓ Allison, who's gonna be speaking tonight,

a couple months ago came through, she always shakes our hands. She actually comes to church here. Many of you said, I don't know Allison. Well, she actually comes here. She sits in the back with her mom and her sister and they come by and shake mine and Mark's hand when they exit. So I know her. She's been here for what, year and a half? But she came through and she said, I have something I felt the Lord's told me to share with you. And she said, it's my testimony. It's actually an interview that got put on YouTube.

And so I listened to it and I was just like, wow. And so I said, later I said, would you consider being our speaker for our ⁓ ice cream social? And she said, let me pray about it. And she said yes, and I'm so glad she did. I know that we all have a story. know, some stories are more dramatic than others, but we all have a story. I don't feel like my salvation story is dramatic.

But it's amazing because Jesus saved me. He saved me from being a little goody two shoes, you know, going to church all the time and thinking I could do all the right things. And that's not how you get saved. You get saved by giving your life to Jesus Christ. And that's salvation. And so she has a very powerful story of how Jesus revealed himself to her and saved her from a life of...

of lies and turmoil and how she walks in peace now. And so I want her to come on up and I'm going to pray for her. Her name is Allison Miller. And give her a hand.

I am really, really, really excited that she said yes. And I learned tonight, she says, you know, I'm really an introvert. It's like, ⁓ I'm just the opposite. But people that are introverts, it helps you understand why you may not know her yet. She's quiet, but she wants to get to know you and she's willing to share her story with you. So I'm gonna pray for her and then she's gonna speak. Lord, I just wanna thank you Father, how you see us.

Lord, you see us in the dark. You see us when we're crying. You see us when we've lost hope. Lord, you see every single one of us. And Lord, I just thank you for that. You love every soul, every soul on this earth, Lord. And I just thank you for how you make provision. You are always calling out to us and wanting to reveal yourself to us. And I thank you for doing that for Allison. thank you for you giving her just a gift.

of being able to write things down, the gift of communication, and we'd pray that for her tonight, Lord. We all pray right now and ask your anointing on her as she speaks. You would help clarify in her mind what she's supposed to share from her story, and then you would anoint her. And we do ask that you would anoint our ears to hear. What do you have to say to each of us through her story, Lord? I just pray you would bless us all now just to have open ears to hear.

Look to you for the power of your Holy Spirit, Lord, to change our lives. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. ⁓

Allison Miller (06:05)
Amen. Thank you Great. Wow. Big crowd.

And it has been so nice to meet so many of you tonight that I have not had the pleasure to meet. And I've heard some really cool stories tonight. And I'm excited for some of you. I heard you're gonna have a wedding out here. And that's just gonna be beautiful, Christiana. So that's exciting. ⁓ I'm gonna share my story. It is a journey.

from trauma and brokenness to redemption and purpose in Christ. And I'm just really honored to be able to be here and do this. But before I tell you my story, I would like to tell you a little tree story. We went to the nursery and we bought a little red bud tree. And our tree,

was beautiful when we planted it. We put good soil in the ground for it. It was just, it was thriving. It had beautiful leaves on it. And then I don't know if y'all remember about a year ago, ⁓ tornado came through our area and it took down like an 80 foot tree in our yard. And so it fell and then to have that tree cleaned up and taken down,

the bulldozers, the stump grinders, all of that had to come in. And I was like, where is our little tree? What happened to it? And I found it a few days later and it was down by the fence. had been run over. had been, you know, it was just, it was so sad. I picked it up and it's like all the roots, there were no dirt left on the roots at all.

And I was just like, hey, they just left it here for dead, our poor little tree. And so I said, Mom, I'm going to replant the tree. And she's, oh, it's not going to live. It's going to live. It's going to live. So we put more, you know, dug a bigger hole, put good dirt in there.

and replanted the tree, went and checked on the tree every day, and there was really nothing coming out on the tree. It was bare, completely bare, and there were no little buds of growth or anything. And so, I don't know, maybe a month passed and all of a sudden we saw this little tiny shoot at the bottom of the trunk.

And I was like, it's alive, it's alive. And mom says, I think you need to cut the trunk off completely so that the energy of growth will go into the new growth. And I said, OK, so we did that. And our little tree is like 2 and 1 or 3 feet high now. And it's thriving and it's beautiful. And I tell you that story because that tree was left for dead.

It was damaged, it was run over, it was left for dead. But somebody came in and picked that tree up and gave it the nurturing that it needed and it lived. And that's the same thing that Jesus can do for us. So that little tree is growing and we're excited about that. So the tree went through some trauma. You might ask what is trauma?

Just regular trauma is like a one-time event. Maybe you have a car accident. Maybe you break your leg. Maybe somebody took your ice cream tonight or you didn't get the ice cream that you wanted. ⁓ But they're typically just one-time events, just trauma. But it does affect you in the moment. It affects your mind. It affects your body. And it affects your spirit.

⁓ But it's temporary. It's not something that is ongoing in your life. Complex trauma is very different from that and it's kind of a term that a lot of people don't know. Complex trauma is repeated trauma over and over and over. Whether you're making bad choices or not, whether you're the one that is the cause of it or not, it is a

source of wounding to your heart. is typically starts in your childhood and many times is caused by caregivers, people in authority, or close circle of people. But it can be experienced in many ways. It can be experienced through sex, sexual. It can be mental.

It can be emotional, can be communal, like in a community, and it can be behavioral. So there are different ways that this affects us, and sometimes trauma and complex trauma will intersect, and all of those things will be affected. ⁓ The impacts of trauma,

are that it affects your brain development and it damages the way you think. you know somebody might say something to you in a huff and you can't even think what to say. Your brain freezes. So ⁓ it alters your behavior in your relationships.

You really don't know how to have a healthy relationship. It can affect your health. And there is a great source of confusion in your mind about what is truth and what lies are. ⁓ And it often leads to shame.

It can lead to fear. It can lead to hypervigilance. It can cause us just to be like, okay, I'm going to take control because all this stuff is happening to me, so I'm going to be the one in control. But it also has a huge effect on how we relate to God, how we see God, how we look to Him as a father or not, how we see ourselves, and how we see other people.

So if I were to take somebody else's glasses and put them on and the prescription was way off from mine and I looked at them, everything would be distorted about them. And that's exactly what happens with somebody that's been through complex trauma. Things get very distorted. It just, it truly impacts the way that we interact with the world. Okay, now that I've shared that with you,

I'm going to share my story. And what I did was I broke it down into decades. And if you have listened to the interview that I did and the testimony that I did, this will be very similar, but the Holy Spirit gave me other things that he wanted us to talk about tonight. So I will be sharing a little bit differently. In my first decade of life, zero to ten,

I just, you know, our family, I was born into a family that didn't have the truth. We did not have the full truth of Jesus in our life. We thought we knew Jesus, but we didn't know Jesus. And we had some unhealthy generational patterns. And we didn't have an understanding of any of it being anything that it wasn't supposed to be. ⁓ So I was sexually violated by neighbors more than once. And I was bullied almost daily.

by two little boys, one that walked home with me from school and one that lived right next door to me and knocked the breath out of me every day. And it wasn't fun at the time, and I can smile about it now, because I'm not in that moment anymore. But what happened is I talked about distortion. My identity and the way that God wanted me to see myself became very distorted.

I didn't feel healthy and good about myself. I had a very low self-esteem. I didn't feel loved. there were times in my life where I rolled on the floor. Mom probably remembers this. Nobody loves me. Everybody hates me. I'm just going to eat some worms. just, you know, it was the way my mind worked and how I felt.

But I'll tell you something really good that happened. When I was 10 years old, we started going to this church in Clarkston and I was listening to the preacher and I just said, you know, I feel like I'm supposed to get baptized. And so mom and dad were good with that.

So all these ladies were wrapped around me and telling me everything is going to be different. You're going to have a new life now. Everything's going to change. But nothing changed for me. In fact, it really felt like things started happening that were worse. They weren't for the good. They were worse. I was betrayed during this.

generation or decade, this is from 10 to 20, during this time by misguided people who I trusted to keep me safe. And that involved church people, family, other people that I cared about and thought that loved me. And I just really felt very alone and didn't feel like anybody understood me. ⁓

didn't think that anybody knew how to help me and I did not know how to help myself. So ⁓ my biggest thing was is that I craved love and acceptance. I know that my mom and dad loved me. They did love me, but I craved love and acceptance.

The thing about it is that my ⁓ vision for what that was was distorted. And so I started looking for love and acceptance in all the wrong places. During that time, my parents went through a divorce, which was earth shattering for me. ⁓ so it really, for me, betrayal kind of became a pattern in my life.

I didn't feel like I could trust anyone for anything. And the wounds in my heart got much deeper. And I just kind of decided at that point, well, I'm just going to take things into my own hands. And it's not like a conscious decision that I made. It was unconscious, but I can look back and I can see where I purposely, in my mind, you know, said, okay.

no, you can't have that. No, that's mine. I'm going to control my life. ⁓ And it kind of led me into a life of rebellion, is what it did. And that led into my third decade of life. ⁓ I was, as I said, seeking love and acceptance in all the wrong places. I was this young woman. I worked. I had a career in real estate.

two daughters by this time and I just, you know, at work I had sexual harassment at work. had during this time, I mean, just I was single, I had multiple rapes, I had broken relationships and ⁓ failing marriages. So I just, my heart just kept getting all these wounds to it.

And I don't know if you understand the way that the heart operates, but our heart and our mind and our words and our actions are all connected. And so when we have these wounds in our heart, we begin to feel all those pain. And I just, I became consumed by pain. And it was pain that

But it was really anger. You know, I was just angry that these things had happened in my life. And I had a very low sense of self-esteem. I felt guilty all the time. And I felt very bitter. I was bitter because I didn't understand why this kept happening to me. And I felt trapped in an endless cycle of destruction.

My rebellion was not to hurt other people. It was not to make somebody else feel bad. It was a way for me to protect myself and a way for me to survive. And the sad thing about that time in my life is that I no longer just had trauma in my life. It had become deep rooted.

and it was now complex trauma. So we're going into my fourth decade of my life, which is a great decade. ⁓ But before it was great, I hit the bottom. I literally hit the very bottom. My relationships and my life had kind of turned into being very transactional. ⁓

I felt like I had to do things to get someone's love. didn't feel like I could just be loved for who I was. And I was in a marriage living 10,000 miles away across the ocean and very defiled and my whole life just started falling apart. I did not know who I was anymore. It was, do you know where's Waldo?

So I literally wrote a blog later about just when I was writing about the way I felt, I was like, where is Allie? Who am I? What has happened to me? And so I called my mom and I was like, I don't know what's wrong with me. I think I need to come home and see a doctor. And she's like, come on.

And so I came home and when I got home, I was in a very, very dark place. I think it was about 10 days that I was in my mom's room, in her bed, couldn't come out, just ⁓ felt suicidal, did not think I was going to make it through.

And I had already been seeing a psychiatrist for, I don't know, maybe 10 years. And I talked to him that day and I said, I don't think I'm going to make it. I don't think I'm going to come out of this. Because my whole life was just spiraling down. Everything was falling apart. And he said, no, you're going to make it. And I said, I don't know. Then my mom walks in the door and she's like, mail call.

So someone had sent me a book and the name of the book was When the Saints Sing the Blues. And I opened that book and I started reading it and she had laid her Bible by my bed. So between that book and her Bible, that's what I was doing in those 10 days. In that book, I connected with people like Job.

people like Moses, people like David who had personal struggles and went through a really, really hard time in their life but also saw in that the transformation that happened in their life. And for the first time in my life, and I have to say I read my Bible all my life and I never understood it, okay? I never understood a word. It was the first time

that I understood what God was saying through His Word. The scripture that I read that just was like, oh, oh, oh, Allison was, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And I was like, wow. Like, I understood that. And I just felt so connected to

⁓ story from the Bible and that I wasn't alone in what I was going through. And so I went to sleep that night and I had a dream and it was really my first encounter that I could put words around that was with the Holy Spirit.

I'd never known about the Holy Spirit before. I never knew a relationship with Jesus. I knew that you go to church and that you do everything right. And, you know, those are the things we learn. But Jesus is about a relationship and that just seeking Him and loving Him. So I want to read my dream to you. I'm going to read two excerpts from my book, if that's all right, ⁓ because this dream

was a moment for me in my life. I was in a dark pit down deep inside the earth. I was scratching with my fingers and digging in with my toes to cling to the side of the crumbling wall. Sobbing and struggling with every ounce of my strength to escape from the darkness, the void, and the emptiness, I lost two steps for every three that I advanced. I felt like I might not make it out.

But I kept holding on tight, digging in each more, digging in more each time the dirt would scatter from my hands and crumble under my toes. All at once, I sensed a powerful presence over me. And I raised my eyes, and dirt was falling into my eyes. But there was a hand. A hand.

in the brightest light, a hand that extended toward me to help me. I wanted to reach out and grab the hand.

I was petrified to let go of the crumbling wall.

but I innately knew the hand was for me. With every ounce of courage in me, I let go and reached high with my right hand. I stretched out until we finally clutched each other tightly. I was dangling in the air weightless like I was when I plunged into the pool as a child. I was drawn up out of the pit.

out of the darkness and toward the light, and it was like a piece of iron drawing me to a powerful magnet. Then, as quickly as I was picked up, I was softly landed on solid ground. It was a revelation for me. Light bulbs were going off in my head like never before. Was God trying to tell me something?

So I woke up the next morning and it was so real. was truly like that. It was so vivid. And my immediate response to what had happened was, I've got to know this person that just pulled me out of this pit. And I felt a sense of peace like I hadn't felt. But I was going through a really hard time during that time.

So ⁓ I guess for three months, was up every morning, I was reading the Bible, I was wanting to know this person that saved me. I mean, how could somebody do that for me? mean, this person is personal. And so three months went by and I made a wholehearted surrender to the Lord.

And I had no idea I was even going to do it. It was New Year's Day, January 1st, 2007. Everybody was gone from the house. And I decided that I was going to undecorate the Christmas tree because that's what I do every day on New Year's Day, every year. And so I said, was like walking in a 180 degree desert.

that was so dry that I felt even a drink of water could cut my throat. I'm pretty close to that now, just so you know. The throat. In my sorrow, I thought to myself, I'll just do what I do every day this year. I'll be alone and undecorate the Christmas tree. I popped in a CD and started taking down the Christmas tree ornaments one by one, singing along with the music as I was working.

A sweet little noise was coming out from deep inside, emanating from a place near my heart, but I was alone. I climbed up a ladder to take down the ornaments at the top. On the third step, I suddenly felt a volcanic eruption from the deepest part of me forcing its way through me. Tears began to flood down my face.

as a range of emotions spilled out of me, out of my heart, out of my eyes. So I stepped down the ladder, moved over, and sat down in my mom's comfy chair. Something was happening at that moment. That was THE moment. I felt completely deep inside, not just within my heart,

But throughout my whole body, was like a huge broken space was engulfing me. I had broken into pieces and I didn't even know I was going to make it through to the other side. And at the same time, I felt like this huge spotlight was glaring on my life. And I cried out to God. I yelled to God. I literally yelled to God to save me.

And in that moment, probably by some miracle, I realized that the way I was living my life was not working. I was a mess. My life was a mess. And it was my own fault. I was continuing to make terrible choices, and I had been so ignorant that I wasn't even aware that I was on the wrong path. And I always say, I truly believe that what we don't know hurts us.

⁓ So I fell to my knees and I begged, God, I cannot do this anymore. I cannot do this life thing. I need you. Please show me. Show me how to live.

And it was then that God revealed to me the pain that I had caused to Him. How I had so deeply hurt Him, it was almost if I was the one putting the nails in His hands on the cross for what I had done in my life and the way that I had lived. But what was amazing is that God showed up for me. I was in my lowest

Donna Byrd (31:09)
you

Allison Miller (31:31)
absolute lowest moment of my life. And the real, living God showed up for me and hope was reborn in me.

And by fifth decade, I was born again. I had the Holy Spirit and I was operating from a new place. And it was all so exciting. It was scary. I didn't really know what was happening to me. You know, I said I had read the Bible all my life and it was truly like God opened up the top of my head

and just started pouring in everything that I had ever learned when I didn't know what I was reading. And so it was just so amazing and it was so wonderful to get to go into his word every day and learn about this Jesus who saved me. And I immediately got into a small group ⁓ and went on this journey of forgiveness. You know, some people do it.

privately with God. mean, I was running to people telling them how sorry I was for hurting them and for living my life. And you know, they were like, what are you talking about? And I'm like, no, no, I hurt you and I'm sorry. And I really am sorry. And so I forgave myself for what I'd done, which is a process.

And I forgave God for not being the person that I thought he was. ⁓ But I began to get this whole sense of freedom. I had always felt like I was in a prison and that I just had chains on me. And so, you know, there were times I would see the prison door open just a little bit and then it would slam shut right when I thought I was going to get to walk through. So,

All of the things that I had believed, all the things that I had felt, the rejection, the fear, the anxiety, the depression, the anger, all of those things started losing their hold on me. And as I became more and more involved in knowing Jesus, those things went away. ⁓ He began to heal broken relationships.

He brought new people into my life that could help me and mentor me and love me and show me the way to go. And I think about two years later, I was just like, and I wanted to do this in the very beginning, and they were like, no, no, you know, but I wanted to lead a group. And so I started having community groups in my home. I had bought a home in the meantime, and I was having groups of women that were going through divorce, and it was title pieces of the heart. That's what God gave me.

And all these women just started coming ⁓ and they were going through similar things, some of them much worse, some of them not as bad, but they were wounded. And it was a place for us to be together, to be in community, to pray with one another, and to heal. ⁓ And so that was beautiful.

That experience birthed 828 women, which was a non-profit organization that I

just felt like God was showing me that he wanted me to do, but I'm gonna tell you right now, I had no idea how to do it. And I didn't know enough people to come along with me and help me. It never got way off the ground and officially launched, but we still operated through it. And it was a really beautiful thing because so many people were helped through that. And it was also during that time where

being in a group like you ladies and everybody was like, Alison, you need to write your story. And I'm like, what? What? And they were like, yes, you need to tell your story. This is amazing what God has done. And so I spent four years doing that. And that's Desperate for Love. And my search for love and acceptance was in the arms of men. And I'm very thankful now that it's

⁓ My love and acceptance is found in the arms of Jesus now. But that is his redemption story and it's not just a memoir, it's a story of hope. But I learned during that time to take every thought captive. I learned that, you know, if

If I felt shame, I would go to the Bible and I would read. If I felt like somebody didn't like me, I would go to the Bible and I would read and I would find the scripture that I needed that told me the truth and the promise of God and live in that promise. mean, there were things written all over, sticky notes everywhere, all over my desk, everywhere. But I learned also to guard my heart.

Because like I talked about earlier, everything flows out of our heart. All of our issues flow out of our heart. So if we don't know how to protect our heart, then people will just stomp all over it. So I learned to do that, and I learned about boundaries that I had never known. And I learned about what safe people look like, and how to be in a circle with safe people, and kind of how to understand.

how to, well, Holy Spirit gives us this way of knowing who is safe and who is not safe. And the beautiful thing about it is that what once destroyed me is what became my testimony of God's love and grace. Now, you haven't heard the good stuff. I mean, that's great. That's the most wonderful thing to meet Jesus, but then what he's done

It's just amazing. In 2019, I went to a conference at Church for Entrepreneurs and I met my now ministry partner there. We were both there wanting to bring our, I had 828 women, he had Destined for Glory, and we were wanting to bring our ministries forth and we were trying to learn how to do that. And so we were at this conference to learn. I gave him a copy of my book.

and he took it and I worked with him a little bit and then he wrote me and he goes, Allison, he goes, I read your book and...

Can I tell you my story? And it was the first time in his life, he's like 65 years old, the first time in his life he had ever told anybody what happened to him. The first time he got that outside of him. And I was just like, wow, God, how amazing.

you are to do something like this for somebody. And we kind of went our separate ways for a while and then we reconnected and we decided that we were going to bring our ministries together. so we co-founded Destined for Glory with God as the CEO. And it's a mission really just to bring hope, healing and wholeness to people that have been through

trauma through destructive relationships. We may think we have not been through it, but if we sit down and write down our history and look at things, maybe we have been. ⁓ It's just been a wonderful experience to do this. I love how God's timing is always perfect. Well, mine didn't work and his didn't work, but we came together and God making it work. We brought our faith together.

⁓ I was asked about what living a better life is. And so for me, living a better life means living in relationship with God. ⁓ If we can take on the truth that we are fearfully and wonderfully made and that in Psalm 139, you know, for me, I just embraced how he created me. I embraced how I was

wired what my temperament was, all those things, my personality, who I am. And I trusted him that he had meaning and purpose for my life. And he does. I mean, he has a story and meaning and purpose for all of us. But I also understood his sovereignty and how every single one of our days are already written in his book. So he already knows everything that's going to happen.

We just, you know, sometimes we're, you know, no, I don't want to go, but he will get us there. ⁓ You know, Romans 12.2 says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

It was my choice through the power of the Holy Spirit to listen to and follow Him. I never did it before. I didn't have that strength ⁓ because it's Him that did that for me. And it was so easy to love Him because He loved me first and I knew what He had done for me and how He had given.

everything for us, for me. So really all in all living better means how God created me with purpose, peace, and his power. And I've had a lot of people in my life as I mentioned that have ⁓ mentored me, coached me, counseled me, and I just believe that

That was my lifeline and I believe it's a lifeline for other people. We can't operate alone when we're in those places. Mentors are good for us. They help us. They guide us. They offer support. They help us see blind spots that we don't have. It's real easy to see somebody else's blind spot. It's not so easy to see yourself in your blind spot.

So my life was so enriched through connections with other people who love the Lord and were showing me exactly what it really meant for a husband and wife to love one another, ⁓ people to love each other as friends, be giving, nurturing, caring, all of those things I learned through these people. And they helped me to recognize my inner potential.

and what I had in me that I could offer for others for His purpose. ⁓ And they helped me to apply the truth of God's Word. And I want to say, you know, there's so many people out there that are talking about the Word, and there are a lot of people that, you know, the knowledge that they have is not from the Lord. ⁓ And I think it's so important for us to be

extremely careful about who we listen to ⁓ because it can really mess your life up if you listen to the wrong people. ⁓ Somebody asked me recently ⁓ if I was going to go back and speak to every generation what

I would say to each, or not generation, but each decade of my life that I went through, what would I say? And I would speak the truth and I would speak love to each of those people. If child, teenager, adult, I would speak truth and love with grace. I would let them know there's hope in Christ and I would help them as I was led to by Christ to help them find safety and healing.

and purpose in their life. But I was asked real specifically on the decade. So for the young girl in the first decade, I would tell her that the person that was speaking to her or doing the things that are hurting her is not about her. It's about them and what they're dealing with and basically their wounds to their heart. And I would let her know her value and her worth.

to me and to God and how much He loves her. ⁓ And for the one that had a distorted view of love, I'd help her understand again the depth of love that God has for her and how the world is so different from the way that God describes love to us and teaches us about love and that it is His desire for her.

to find significance, acceptance, and worth in him alone, not other people, not things. And then for the one in the third decade, that's when I went through so much and my trauma was snowballing and it became very complex. I would let her know there's a pathway to be healed. There is hope. There is a way to have a new life.

and I would help her know safe people and boundaries and know God more. And, you know, I don't have the power to help somebody know God better, but I can pray for them and I can love them and I think it's through our love that people change. It's not through us telling them.

You didn't do that right. You need to do this. You shouldn't have done that. That's a word to take out of your vocabulary, by the way. Shouldn't. Should not. ⁓ And I would also try to help her understand how we have an enemy who is working against us all the time. And it is his goal to steal, kill, and destroy everything that God has.

Comparing ourselves to one and all of those things that we do you can just be who you are and Walk in the fullness of that ⁓ I don't know if anybody here is in one of those decades But if you are or if you know somebody that is I hope that you'll walk beside them I hope you'll tell them that God sees them and That he wants them to know that there's healing for their trauma

I had some collateral damage. had two daughters. They went through a lot. They've had a lot of help over the years. I think the thing that changed their life the most, and I cling to this because it is a promise of God, that when you give your life to Him, He will bring your children. And my children are 41 and 37.

almost, they're watching. ⁓ And I have two daughters and ⁓ they've suffered their own trauma too. And the thing about it is, is that my surrender and my willingness to walk with the Lord has had more of an impact on them than the trauma has had on them.

And we have got the most amazing relationships with one another. And I know that God has just blessed us with that because we're walking with Him. you know, trauma passes down, but so does healing. And I would say to you, let Jesus write your family's new story because He can and He will.

You know, life after trauma, if you're in here right now, you're going through things, you're not stuck. You are absolutely not stuck. God can bring healing to you. There's freedom and wholeness that is possible for you. ⁓ You'll have a story that has purpose and that will touch people's lives. There's transformation that is real. ⁓ You'll escape the prison of deception.

Somebody mentioned they feel like they're just in chains and yeah, that is exactly what it feels like. ⁓ And you can break generational cycles. We don't understand the impact that our actions have today on our children three generations later. And they do have a great impact. I have four grandchildren and I want them to walk with the Lord all the days of their lives. ⁓

I will never forget the day that we were all standing in church and all of them were there. And my oldest granddaughter was being baptized and I just looked around and I was like, God, you're fulfilling your promise. And it just brought me to tears. ⁓ So God is good and he is good all the time. But I would say, know, in going through your trauma, seek Jesus first. Seek him with all your heart.

because He's the one that is going to help you. Seeking Jesus brings lots of good things into your life, but mostly His knowledge, His understanding, and wisdom comes through that. I would just like to tell you all exactly what Jesus told me. I am His precious daughter, and you are too, and you're the apple of His eye.

and you are absolutely 100 % complete in Christ to be who he created you to be and to walk in the fullness of that and that you are here for such a time as this just like Esther was. And for anybody who's broken, you're not broken beyond repair. ⁓ You're loved and you're seen and you're cherished by God. ⁓ I don't know how much time we have. ⁓

I have some words of wisdom. ⁓ I would just say know whose you are. You were bought at a price. Know how you're created because He created you for this life. Know that life is hard. Life is hard, but God is faithful and He has made all these promises to us that we can take on and live as truth. Guard your heart. Choose your circle wisely.

Put good people in your circle because they're the people that are going to influence you the most. just, you know, God has provided every single thing that we need to heal. It's here. We have it. It's ours for taking, receiving. We have to receive it. So I would say choose the truth. Choose healing. Choose Jesus.

So just like that little tree that we took and replanted and nurtured and now it's thriving. God did the same thing to me. I wasn't left for dead. ⁓ He gave me a new life and I can operate and walk in that in His goodness. And my trauma no longer defines me. It's just part of the story of

what happened in my life and I feel extremely blessed because of it. Because I know that I can touch people's lives who may not ever know how to help someone. Someone else may not know. ⁓ But God's redemption story is waiting to be written in all of our lives. So just think about what's one thing you could do to take that step to have that in your life.

Say yes. Yes, Jesus. Yes to healing. Yes to Him. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Donna Byrd (53:06)
Amen! You just stay right here.

Allison Miller (53:11)
Okay.

Donna Byrd (53:11)
⁓ I am so thankful that you said yes to speak tonight. This was very powerful testimony for all of us this year. And don't you all just feel just a little bit privileged? That's the way I feel. Very, very privileged that the Lord wanted us to get to be here personally and to hear you speak your testimony. Very, very, like. ⁓

Allison Miller (53:40)
you

Donna Byrd (53:41)
In on it. You know, it's like the Lord just says, I want you to be in on this. I want you to be blessed by what I have done. I knew that it was a story of redemption. And that is the most beautiful story there is. Jesus redeems us. Loves to pick up the broken pieces and put them back together. You have broken pieces in your life.

Allison Miller (53:57)
Hey. ⁓

⁓ Do you?

Donna Byrd (54:08)
I just want to encourage you, bring your broken pieces to the Lord. That's what he does best. He doesn't, I just love the little analogy with the tree.

Allison Miller (54:20)
⁓

Donna Byrd (54:21)
Yeah, he sees what you've been through. And ⁓ he wants to make something beautiful, beautiful, beautiful out of your life. thank you, Allison. Thank you, Lord, for putting us together for such a time as this. So many things that you said just stood out so much. Guard your heart. I get so sick sometimes of hearing of all the horrible things that are going on in the world. But guard your heart.

God is doing a good thing. He is preparing. He's coming back again. And I just believe it soon. And we cannot live in fear. That is not His, that's not what He wants of us. You know, and you had a horrible situation, made bad choices. We all do that. But the Lord, He's got a plan. He's got a plan. And I feel like tonight that we were all encouraged to make good choices. I would like to,

Say one more thing about Allison. ⁓ She has written this book. It's in the back. It's called Desperate for Love. And you wrote it when? Yeah. My Search for Acceptance in the Arms of Ben. And I asked her to give me a book so I could just look through it. And I've only read a few chapters, so I can't really talk about the whole book. But let me tell you, it is a page-turner.

Allison Miller (55:25)
and

2014.

Donna Byrd (55:48)
So you will enjoy it. I'm taking it to the beach with me next week. And it will be, yeah. So I know I can read it. It's a page turner. So just encourage you there. $20 or whatever suggested, it's not really a, that's a suggested price, but it doesn't matter. donation, whatever you can afford. So I did want to say that for her, because I encouraged her to bring her books.

Allison Miller (56:15)
and

Donna Byrd (56:16)
and we will pray for you. I'm trying to think if there's anything else I'm supposed to say other than if you need help or you just want prayer, this is not, ⁓ we're gonna close the meeting because I promised to close it at nine, but we're here. If you want prayer or if you need to talk to somebody, don't go away discouraged. We pray for you. So let's all join together. Lord, I just wanna thank you for the victory that is ours in Jesus.

no matter how discouraged we may feel. Lord, you are the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the God Almighty, and your hand is not too short that it cannot save. Lord, that is your desire. Allison said, we are destined for glory. So Lord, help us to just put our hand in your hand and trust you for whatever the next day holds. So Lord, we just thank you for this evening. We thank you for the power of

of the spoken word, the power of the testimony given, and we just pray for your power and your love just to continue to fan out and just to touch each woman's heart that is here tonight. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right.