Unbound.

Daniel 3:24-25

But suddenly, Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in amazement and exclaimed to his advisers, “Didn’t we tie up three men and throw them into the furnace?”

“Yes, Your Majesty, we certainly did,” they replied.

“Look!” Nebuchadnezzar shouted. “I see four men, unbound, walking around in the fire unharmed! And the fourth looks like a God[g]!”

Here we go. It's testimony time:

• My parents went through a very nasty divorce (not that any divorce is pleasant) when I was twelve years old. This turned my world upside down. Until this point in time, I never even heard them argue. From here on out, there wouldn't be too many school functions, birthdays, holidays, and weekend visitations that they wouldn't argue about.
• A couple years after the divorce the courts separated me from my brother and sister. Dad got custody of me, and Mom got custody of Jessy and Josh. Until this happened, us kids were all each other had that was a stability through the craziness. We would now only be together on weekends. And we would strictly follow the court orders a majority of the time. 
• This was all followed by years of confusion, self hatred, abandonment issues, self harm, and a deep hurt and anger. Things happened in both homes that we never should have had to go through. Mom shouldn't have left, she shouldn't have married an abusive man, she shouldn't have given me the responsibility of a mother and house wife. Dad shouldn't have yelled so much, shouldn't have lost his temper so often, shouldn't have slept for days at a time. There is no point into going into detailed events, but trust me, I could write a book.
• I started smoking somewhere in here...I cannot exactly remember what age, probably around 12 or 13 though. I also started taking pills. And when I couldn't get high fast enough I started snorting them. Then my "friends" told me that we were snorting the mixture of pills that we usually did, and I did my first few lines of cocaine. This terrified me, so I quit with the pills, for the most part. I also starting cutting somewhere in here. It was the only release of emotion I knew how to handle. I had control. I had been hurt by so many people around me, it only felt natural to hurt myself. I hated myself more than I hated anyone. I didn't care if I lived or died. I thought about suicide all the time. I didn't think I had any value to anyone. I saw myself as worthless. 
• To brighten things up a little, my Dad ends up getting remarried and having another child. His wife was very insistent that we had to go to church. We didn't have to like it, but we did have to go. I despised it. I had formed my opinion of church-I was somehow happy in my self hatred-I was comfortable there, comfortable and miserable at the same time. Little did I know, my future was just starting. I would meet my husband in this little, small town, Church of Christ. Through him, I started going to a Spirit Filled church. I was filled with the Holy Ghost and with that, my old habits began to fall to the wayside. For the first time in my life, I drew closer to God--I began a personal relationship with Him. I began to see myself the way He saw me. The problems at home did not get any better after I gave my life to God, but dealing with them did.
• As the addictions and habits came to an end, I had no idea how much healing I still needed. I did not see myself as God saw me. I held anger and forgiveness towards my parents, but mainly towards myself. I had to learn how to let my husband love me, and how to let God change my mindset about everything. God had to teach me that to forgive everything in my past wasn't to say that none of it happened. It was not discrediting the pain that I felt. It was taking that pain and letting it go. 
• Years later, after Ryan and I got married and even after we had children, the pain from things of my past would sneak up on me from time to time. I couldn't talk about much, and avoided confrontation with all costs. I was an adult, a wife, a mother....still fighting the demons from my childhood. I can tell you now, that at 26 years old, I am free from all of this! I can talk about my past without crying. I can look my parents in the eyes and tell them wholeheartedly that I forgive them. Trust me when I say that I tried everything under the sun before I let God heal these wounds. Even sitting in a church pew for years, I wouldn't fully give in. I tried self help books, keeping gobs of journals, hiding things from my husband....the only freedom I found was in surrendering to Jesus Christ. Giving him all of me, the good-bad-and ugly.
• There is no doubt in my mind that the reason I am here today is because I stayed in church. I fought through all of those things. I went through the fire. It was hot. I was miserable. It was intense. But I went through it. And I made it out alive. No doubt, I was not in any of that alone. I can see an image in my mind of me being in this fire, and angels saying, "Look! There she is! She isn't bound, she is in the fire but not bound by it!" 
• Someone recently told me at work that they would have never guessed about my past had I told them. That, my dear friends, is proof, that I have been through the fire, AND I DON'T EVEN SMELL LIKE SMOKE! I have been transformed. My past has no hold on my future. My past is not who I am, it is who I was. I am a NEW creation in Christ. I thank God that he brought me through the fire. 

Daniel 3:27
"Then the high officers, officials, governors, and advisers crowded around them and saw that the fire had not touched them. Not a hair on their heads was singed, and their clothing was not scorched. They didn’t even smell of smoke!"

• I wonder how people reacted when they were told this story? I can just hear it....

 "I never would have known any of that if you didn't tell me! I mean, it just doesn't seem like you could have went through any of that..."