Is Now the Right Time to Seek Redemption for Your Past Abortion?

How do you know if now is the right time for you to start your healing journey? 

To be honest, I don’t think any of us ever feel 100% READY to get started on a healing path, but I can tell you that we all need to do it at some point or we are never going to be able to step into the joy that God desires for us to feel in this life that He has given us. 

If you’re asking yourself, “Am I ready?” then I pray that this helps you get one step closer to knowing whether or not you are ready to finally say “yes.” 

Well, friends, we have a fun special going on for you this week if you want to start your healing journey! Right now, you can get your Abortion Recovery Breakthrough Call Package for a super special price! But, how do you know if you’re even ready? Or, maybe that healing path isn’t the one that you think is right for you, but you want to know if you’re ready for a group or retreat. Let’s dig into some ways for you to figure that out! 

First, though, I want to reflect a little bit and share with you some things I went through personally that helped me finally say, “yes.”

Did you know it took me just over 10 years to finally seek healing from my abortion? I was 17 at the time I decided to have an abortion, and I didn’t walk through the doors of a healing program until I was 28. 10 years is a lot of years to walk in pain without getting any help. To be honest, I didn’t know that there was help out there and frankly, I was way too afraid to reach out to find it. 

There are so many times I could have done that, even just months after the abortion itself. I remember when I had confessed to my mom about what I had done, she ended up being referred to a local pregnancy center that had someone who offered post-abortion counseling. This woman is actually a friend and mentor of mine today. At the time, she would patiently meet with me and give me some homework to work through some of the things I was dealing with, but I was not ready to face it. I don’t even know if regret had set in at this point. I felt guilty for what I had done, but the gravity hadn’t totally set in yet. I was in denial, and I wanted to continue living life the way I wanted and not the way that God desired for me too. I wanted to continue to take part in sinful acts with no consequence. So, while help was right there for me, I wasn’t taking it. 

A few years later, help was right there again in the form of a therapist. I was struggling so much with anger that I knew I needed help, but I didn’t know that it was related to my unresolved grief and shame. I had every opportunity to tell my therapist about my past abortion, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I even know that this woman was post-abortive herself, and I STILL couldn’t muster up the courage to tell her. Help was right in front of me, and I shoved it right out of the way. 

I remember seeing a post on Facebook from a post-abortion ministry that a friend had invited me to that had all of these post-abortion resources listed. This would have been when I was about 25 years old. At this point, regret had deeply set in but I would mask it daily. Healing was something I thought I should do, but I wanted to do it by myself. I didn’t think I needed someone else to do it with me. So, I looked at the resource tab on her website and ordered every single book that was listed. I anxiously awaited their arrival in the mail, and then just stared at them. I would try to muster up the courage to open them and begin but continued to avoid them. I tried writing in one but didn’t even make it past the first chapter. I had zero accountability, so I was able to avoid what I needed extremely easily. 

It wasn’t until I was 28 that I knew I absolutely needed to get help. I couldn’t go on any further. I had known about a healing pathway in my area, but I kept making excuses as to why I couldn’t be a part of it. Finally, God gave me a gentle but firm shove, and said “This is the way.” I was able to reach out and that very same friend who had tried to help me at the young age of 17 welcomed me with open arms and I haven’t been the same since. I learned who God was and how much He loved me, and I walked away with coping mechanisms and tools that I could take with me for the rest of my life when the grief would set in and the days would get hard. 

I am so incredibly thankful that I finally said yes and stopped avoiding healing. I don’t think I had anything in my mind click that I was ready, but I do know that the years of prompting from God had finally been too big to ignore. If I wouldn’t have said yes when I did, who knows if I would even be here talking to you today? 

So, how do you know if you need healing? How do you know if you’re ready? Like I said, I don’t know that there’s necessarily going to be something that hits you in the face to alarm your system into knowing “it’s time.” But, there are some questions you can ask yourself to see if now is a good time for you to get started. 

1. Do you struggle to walk through life normally?
   1. The struggle you’re thinking of doesn’t have to be obviously connected to your abortion. For example, I was super angry but didn’t realize this was because of the shame and guilt I felt from my own abortion.
   2. Just a reminder that our bodies hold on to trauma, and we may not always know the specific trauma that is the reason for our problems.
   3. In this question, “struggle” could mean a huge variety of things: anger, depression, self-esteem issues, PTSD, eating disorders, anxiety, and so much more. 

2. Do you have the time to dedicate to healing?
   1. You don’t need a ton of time, but digging into the past can get emotional and tough at times, so it is important for you to have time and space to dedicate to your healing.
   2. If you have a lot on your plate right now, you might need to take inventory of what is necessary to keep and what you can cut out so you can dedicate some of that time to healing. 
   3. Don’t automatically say “no” to this question! You can likely find the time to fit this in. Again, it doesn’t take a ton of time. Remember that we prioritize and make time for what is important. Healing is important!

3. Are you ready to go all-in with God and surrender your pain to him?
   1. Doing this is going to bring you freedom!
   2. Are you ready for freedom? Are you ready to let go? Are you ready for abundance? I just threw a million questions at you for this one line-item, but this part gets me excited! Walking in freedom is what God so desires for us and He can get us there when we partner with Him for our healing. My prayer is that you are saying “yes!” to this question!

If you’re saying “yes” to any of those questions, then now is the time! You are ready to heal. You may not want to be ready. You may not feel ready. You may actually feel terrified. You might feel sick to your stomach. God doesn’t call us to the easy things. Most of the things He calls us to are super hard and difficult. The fluffy Christian-ese sayings don’t tell you that, but it’s true. God doesn’t call us to be comfortable, He calls us to be in a state of surrender to Him. Surrender your healing to Him and be ready to live a life full of freedom that you couldn’t have even imagined for yourself. 

I’m praying that you take the next right step that He has for you today, whatever that is! The other side of healing is a beautiful place to be, and my prayer is that every single woman struggling with this pain gets there, no matter what that path looks like or where He takes you. 

XO, Brittany

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