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Band Aids vs. Stitches

Article by Janice Jones

This week’s message is a bit different from those I usually send. However this is the message the Holy Spirit instructed me to send. I have also included a picture of my actual scar to further demonstrate the presence of the proverbial scars. If you want to know the full story on how the actual scar came about reply to this email and I will send you the details.

Band Aids vs. Stitches

When we are physically wounded, left with a cut or a gash, we often run to the Band Aids to cover our wounds. Depending on how deep the cut, a Band Aid may be a suitable temporary solution. But that would only work if the simple wound is first appropriately cleaned with a proper antiseptic. On the other hand, if the damage is proven to be deeper than initially anticipated, a few stitches may be required. However, many people are afraid of the procedure getting stitches involves. So instead of going through the more extensive process, an injured person might continue to place the ill-equipped Band Aid on the gash.

I have an actual scar on my elbow I received when I was about ten or eleven years old. A friend and I were horsing around and I fell, busting my elbow wide open. For several days, I hid the wound from my parents while bleeding through the sleeves of many blouses. I knew in even my own limited wisdom that the cut required stitches, but I was afraid of the procedure.

On the other hand, I also have a far more unattractive scar on my upper right arm. This cut was so deep that it severed some of the nerve tendons in the arm and there is a small space on my right forearm that has no feeling in it. The circumstances causing this wound are far more ugly than simply horse playing with a friend. This wound is the result of emotional wounds that I kept covering with Band Aids.

Emotional scars from long past ruled my thought process, enabling me to behave in impetuous and erratic ways, leading me to destructive conclusions. My actions were the result of wounds that I never got stitched, but chose to apply Band Aids to. These deep wounds, invisible to the naked eye, caused by my mother and grandmother’s alcoholism and being sexually abused by another family member, were wounds that only healed after I had them properly stitched. I Peter 2:24-25 says, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

The first step in this procedure: Establishing a profound relationship with God and completely turning my life over to Him and His power.

Step two: Being led by the Holy Spirit to Dr. Fredericka Jackson, a Christian psychologist.

Step three: Allowing Dr. Jackson to take me through the painful process of reopening the internal injuries, examining them one by one.

Step four: Cleaning out the build up of all the infectious thoughts, actions, habits and characteristics.

Step five: Beginning to sew my life back together by learning new affirmations, new ways of thinking about myself and my circumstances, being introduced to scriptures that will have an impact on my everyday life and my future and those that will help me to battle the demons who come against me to continuously shove my past in my face and use it to bring me back down to the level of lowness where I formerly dwelt.

Step six: Allowing God, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit to help me with the tender aftercare as I healed and let the stitches do their job of restoring me from cut up and torn to the wholeness promised in the Word by the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

The final step: Beginning life anew, utilizing all the resources provided by God and effectively using the scar left behind as motivation to inspire others to go through whatever variation of the stitching procedure necessary to again make their lives whole. The scar represents my past. It can never be erased, but its presence will serve as a permanent reminder of how great a healer God is.

The temporary Band Aids only serve to cover the wounds. They offer no healing properties. For many years I used sex, manipulation, control, anger, lies and other vices as Band Aids to cover the wounds of low self esteem, hopelessness, abandonment and lack of fulfillment created by the traumas of my past. It was not until I allowed my injuries to be stitched that they truly healed…..

Isaiah 53:4-5 says, “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”