94: Mary Demuth | Hope After Sexual Abuse

94: Mary DeMuth | Hope After Sexual Abuse

Mary DEmuth | Hope After SExual abuse

Mary DeMuth is an international speaker and podcaster, and she’s the novelist and nonfiction author of over forty books, including Pray Every Day (Harvest House Publishers 2020).

She loves to help people re-story their lives.

She lives in Texas with her husband of 29 years and is the mom to three adult children.

Find out more at marydemuth.com.

Be prayed for on her daily prayer podcast with over one million downloads: prayeveryday.show.

For sexual abuse resources, visit wetoo.org.

For writer mastermind information, go to writermastermind.com.

 

Mary DeMuth joins me to share her story of being sexually abused as a 5 year old girl and how God re-storied her through the grace and hope of Jesus.  Mary also shares how the church can redemptively respond to the sexual abuse crisis.

Questions Mary and I Discussed:

  1. (5:23) You say, “Not only have I been restored, I have been re-storied.”  Take us back to your childhood and share what happened to you at 5 years old?
  2. (13:03)  What were some of those wounds that you carried with you and likely continue to work through today?
  3. (17:27) What were your teens years like?
  4. (20:10) At 15, you met Jesus through Young Life.  Tell us about that experience.
  5. (29:00) You have written, “He changed my I was statements into I am statements.”  Will you share some of those with us?
  6. (31:21) One of your recent books is We Too: How the Church Can Respond Redemptively to the Sexual Abuse Crisis. First, what are some ways we are missing the mark?
  7. (37:19) As followers of Jesus, what are some ways we can respond redemptively to sexual abuse?

Quotes to Remember:

“It’s extremely rare for a child to tell, so the fact that I did is surprising, but the sad thing is the babysitter did nothing.” “I was thinking to myself, not a soul in this world cares about me, no one’s gonna take care of me.” “I would say the greatest wound is or the greatest manifestation of my sexual abuse…. is disconnection. When all this abuse was happening, I would disassociate and fly away in my mind.” “I started hearing about Jesus. And every single time I heard about him, my heart would just start leaping out of my chest. I just want to hear more about Jesus.” “I was sitting with my back against a gigantic hemlock tree, and just asking God to please be the daddy who would never leave me. That’s all I really wanted.” “I am very pro counseling. I’m very pro EMDR and trauma therapy, I’m pro all those things, but I’m very pro prayer. That is an avenue that must be explored in your healing journey just as much as counseling.” “I feel like we are so enamored with celebrity and status and fame, that we will rally around the strong, famous one, and we will neglect the broken, hurting one.” “It’s doing us no service to throw things under the rug and pretend that they don’t happen.  I think the way we’re missing the mark, is we’re forgetting the humanity of our leaders.” “I’m very skeptical of a pastor who’s abused someone in his congregation who immediately demands that he be put back in ministry and says things like, ‘Well, it’s the only thing I know how to do well.’ No, I’m sure you can paint houses. There are lots of other things that you can do to make money, that is not going to be placing you in a place where you can abuse your power.” “If someone comes to us with a story to always err on the side of belief, because typically, people are not going to lie about a sexual abuse story.”

Resources Mentioned:

Related Episodes:

Episode Sponsors:

Heather M. Dixon | Author, Speaker, Bible Teacher

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94: Mary DeMuth | Hope After Sexual Abuse Quote
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