Stepping out from Behind the Stones

Welcome to Stepping Stones! My name is Lysbeth Neel, and I am always learning and growing in this fascinating world around us. I offer perspective, just like anyone does, but instead of clogging up facebook I share it with the world through my blogs. Take a moment to scroll through.
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Wednesday, April 27, 2016

My story- Just the beginning

August 3rd 2011.

I was having a normal day for a home schooled kid age fourteen, except that my home was anything but normal. Of course to me, it was just another day of dealing with my mother's anger, mood swings, and violent behavior. Let's just call it as it is- Abuse.

Don't get me wrong, I respect my mom a lot, she gave birth to me, cared for me, taught me, and brought me up with manners. But she had some downfalls like everyone does, just hers were worse and they affected me physically and mentally. She would throw objects at me and my siblings including furniture, dishes, and any valuable she could get her hands on. She would discipline us but not in a normal way, she was extreme and when I mean extreme I mean when she found a Juicy Fruit gum wrapper of mine she flipped out since she didn't allow gum that wasn't dental gum, so she got four packs of gum and made me chew a golf ball sized piece of gum until my jaw hurt for days. I learned my lesson, but still disciplining your child until they hurt physically doesn't make sense does it?

Some days I would get up to 4 or 5 spankings as a child, all the way till I was 14 years old when I left. She would break wooden spoons by how hard she hit, and would use the skinny switches from the apple tree in our back yard- which drew blood almost every time. Now that's just a glimpse of the physical abuse, and emotionally she was even worse.
Every time you would stand up for yourself or try to talk to her at all, she would turn every word against you and blame you for everything. She would say something along the lines of, " So I guess I am the big ugly witch in your life because you did something you weren't suppose to do and I am enforcing the rules here!" and her most famous quote, "It's just shut up and put up for me!" when we would try to stand up for ourselves. Basically she acted like a child throwing a fit and if we didn't grovel and ask for forgiveness and repent our "terrible" sins than we were looked on as a child who would burn in hell and treated as such.

Fourteen years of abuse, and I still to this day hate calling it that because she still has a spell on me, as if she controls me. But after every sibling had left and broken contact with my parents, I was alone and fully to blame for all my siblings downfalls including mine as well. Not to mention her anger against my dad was also another reason to take it out on me, as I was with her 24/7 in a house and I wasn't often allowed to leave unless she knew exactly where I was going and for how long and only on her terms. So I finally left after being dragged by my hair, cursed out and beaten. I took a stand and left - walking in barefoot on the hot pavement for quite awhile before I got to the nearest church.
It took every ounce of courage to knock on the door and ask for a ride to my brother's house. But somehow I did, and when I had gotten there I took the first step out of the car and I wish I could say I didn't look back- but I did. And over the next 5 years it would get me into some of the worst situations I could imagine.

I want to redefine this blog by starting to post about my experiences and share with you my story, so here is the first look. I hope that my story and experiences can bring hope and help to you no matter what you are going through in your life.
Thanks for reading.

2 comments:

  1. Hello Lysbeth. I am a Pastor from Mumbai, India. I am so much emotionally moved by your story of how your Mom treated you for fourteen years which amounts to a physical abuse.May the Lord heal all your hurts and give you the hear of forgiveness to forgive your Mom. I am blessed and feel privileged and honored to get connected with you as well as know you through your profile on the blogger and the blog post. I have been in the Pastoral ministry for last 37 yrs in this great city of Mumbai a city with a great contrast where richet of rich and the poorset of poor live. We reach out to the poorest of poor with the love of Christ to bring healing to the brokenhearted. we also encourage young and the adults from the west to come to Mumbai to work with us during their vacation time to work with us. We would love to have you come to Mumbai with your friends to work with us during your vacation time. I am sure you will have a life changing experience. My email id is: dhwankhede(at)gmail(dot)com and my name is Diwakar Wankhede. Looking forward to hear fro m you very soon. God's richest blessings on you, your family and friends.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello Lysbeth. I am a Pastor from Mumbai, India. I am so much emotionally moved by your story of how your Mom treated you for fourteen years which amounts to a physical abuse.May the Lord heal all your hurts and give you the hear of forgiveness to forgive your Mom. I am blessed and feel privileged and honored to get connected with you as well as know you through your profile on the blogger and the blog post. I have been in the Pastoral ministry for last 37 yrs in this great city of Mumbai a city with a great contrast where richet of rich and the poorset of poor live. We reach out to the poorest of poor with the love of Christ to bring healing to the brokenhearted. we also encourage young and the adults from the west to come to Mumbai to work with us during their vacation time to work with us. We would love to have you come to Mumbai with your friends to work with us during your vacation time. I am sure you will have a life changing experience. My email id is: dhwankhede(at)gmail(dot)com and my name is Diwakar Wankhede. Looking forward to hear fro m you very soon. God's richest blessings on you, your family and friends.

    ReplyDelete