Latest / Anchored by the Sword / Healing After Trauma: Kimberly Haar’s Story of Redemption, Counseling, and God’s Presence!
Transcript
- 0:00Thank you for joining me for this episode of the Anchor by
- 0:01the Sore podcast. I pray that today's episode will
- 0:04leave you both encouraged and challenged in your walk with God
- 0:08and how to become more anchored in both him and in his word.
- 0:11So enjoy and let's do this. Hey guys, welcome to this
- 0:15episode of the Anchor by the Sword podcast.
- 0:17I'm excited today to introduce you guys to Kim Hart.
- 0:20She has a book that comes out today called Healing from Life's
- 0:24Deepest Hurts, Reclaiming your life after grief, loss or
- 0:28trauma. And if you've been around the
- 0:29podcast any length of time or know anything about what I've
- 0:34been doing, I wrote a book called Anchored in Freedom, and
- 0:37we talk about grief, loss, and trauma.
- 0:39So this is a. Part of my past as well.
- 0:43And so I love to have other people on to talk about their
- 0:46stories. So that way, you know, you're
- 0:47not alone. Kim, thank you so much for
- 0:50joining me today. Thank you for having me, it's an
- 0:53honor. Absolutely.
- 0:54Can you tell my listeners a little bit about yourself?
- 0:57Sure. Professionally, I am a licensed
- 0:59professional counselor. I'm also licensed marriage and
- 1:02family therapist and I have been doing that for approximately 20
- 1:05years. I am married and have between my
- 1:09husband and I we have 11 adult children and three grandbabies
- 1:12that make the world a better place.
- 1:14Wow, that's awesome. 11 kids, 11 adult kids.
- 1:18That's that's a lot. Well, that includes the ones
- 1:21that are married. So we've we've brought a.
- 1:23Few. OK, so you said you've been
- 1:27doing marriage and family therapy for a long time.
- 1:30When did you start doing counseling?
- 1:32Sure. Well, as a therapist, I, I have
- 1:34been doing this, I think it's like 18 years.
- 1:36I became a therapist because I was in pain myself.
- 1:40I was in a first marriage and my husband and I, we went to
- 1:43marriage counseling and I just didn't feel like it was giving
- 1:46me hope. I felt like it was putting a
- 1:48Band-Aid on on our situation. And I decided while going
- 1:52through counseling that I was going to go back to school and I
- 1:55was going to learn how to be a therapist.
- 1:57So I went back to school in my late 30s, and I'm 58 now.
- 2:01And so this is kind of like my second career.
- 2:05That's awesome. And that it gives encouragement
- 2:07to people who are walking through something and they feel
- 2:11like there's this call to go to another level or to another
- 2:14position. That really does give
- 2:15encouragement to people that, hey, you can actually do it.
- 2:17You can turn around at any time and you can start a brand new
- 2:20career. So it's never too late.
- 2:23Amen to that. I, I went into nursing, I've
- 2:27been in the medical field for 18 some odd years now and I became
- 2:32a nurse at 28 and I was one of the older ones in the class.
- 2:37But there were still people who were in my class that were in
- 2:39their 40s and 50s, which now I'm 45.
- 2:43And it was just, it was crazy, but it was so cool to see people
- 2:47learning that their other way was not working and they wanted
- 2:50something new. So absolutely.
- 2:53All right, Kim, let's go ahead and dive into your freedom
- 2:55story. Sure.
- 2:57Well, my freedom story, I like to begin that in 2013, I made
- 3:03the hardest decision of my life and that was after 23 years of
- 3:08marriage. I made a decision to divorce my
- 3:10first husband. There had been ongoing
- 3:13infidelities throughout our marriage and I had forgiven and
- 3:16forgiven and forgiven again and not put healthy boundaries in
- 3:19place. But we had four children and I
- 3:22made the decision I wanted to stay and be there with them so
- 3:25that they weren't going between homes.
- 3:27But in 2013, I discovered my ex-husband was having an affair.
- 3:32And when I discovered that, I just knew that our marriage,
- 3:36there was no hope. It was done.
- 3:38And so I filed for divorce. And for the next 4 years, I told
- 3:42my ex-husband, I said I'm going to focus on just being a mom.
- 3:46Our youngest children were still in high school.
- 3:48I didn't want them to feel like they were having to fight for my
- 3:51attention. And so I dedicated that next
- 3:54four years just to healing and being a mom to my four children.
- 3:59In 2017, I woke up in the morning and something told me,
- 4:04this is the year you're going to get married again.
- 4:07And so and I, I swear I heard the words buckle your seat belt.
- 4:12But I just thought, well, that just means that it's going to go
- 4:14fast. And my ex-husband and I had had
- 4:18a friendly divorce and I knew that he somewhat wanted to see
- 4:22if there was any opportunity for us to date again.
- 4:25But you know, I had repeatedly told him that there was none.
- 4:29So on April Fool's Day I met a man and I had at the age of 50 I
- 4:35decided to join 5 dating sites because I thought, where does a
- 4:3850 year old woman go to meet people?
- 4:41And so I had been on 13 first dates and I was just about ready
- 4:46to hang it up. I was like this maybe just isn't
- 4:48for me and I had a 14th 1st date and when I met this man he I
- 4:54just knew right away. We clicked and we saw each other
- 4:58almost every night for a month and both of us knew that we
- 5:01wanted to marry. And I like to smile and laugh
- 5:05and say that the man that I was dating, his name was Andrew and
- 5:09he was an engineer. And he told me after dating for
- 5:11two weeks, he said, you know, I asked Google how long you have
- 5:15to know somebody before you know you're in love.
- 5:18So that is your typical engineer, like wants the data,
- 5:22wants the facts. And so we both knew we were
- 5:25going to be going towards getting married.
- 5:27One evening, my ex-husband called me and he said he wanted
- 5:30me to come over to his home and talk to him about our children.
- 5:33That was not uncommon. We'd had many conversations and
- 5:37when I went to his home he started talking to me about
- 5:40wanting to date me again and I told him that I was dating
- 5:44somebody seriously, he needed to move on.
- 5:46I was moving on. And he made a comment.
- 5:49He said maybe I'll just need to go talk to that man.
- 5:52And it that didn't make sense to me because I hadn't discussed it
- 5:56with him. But when I left my ex husband's
- 5:58home that night I called Andrew, my boyfriend and I said can I
- 6:02come by your house and can I talk to you just for a few
- 6:05minutes. It was about 9 O clock at night.
- 6:07And so when I got there, I told him about the conversation, the
- 6:10disagreement my ex-husband and I had had.
- 6:13And I said, Andrew, I apologize. My ex-husband may, you know,
- 6:16spread rumors about me. He may just, you know, come to
- 6:19your work and harass you. I don't know what he was saying,
- 6:22but would you fight for me? And Andrew said, well, of course
- 6:26I would. And when I asked him why, he
- 6:29said because you're worth it. And little did I know that
- 6:34within 24 hours, Andrew wouldn't just be fighting for me, but he
- 6:39was going to be fighting for his life.
- 6:41So I left Andrew's house and I went home.
- 6:44It was, you know, probably 10:00, 10/30.
- 6:46And, and I was getting into bed and something stirred in me and
- 6:50said lock your bedroom door. I was living by myself.
- 6:54And so I got up. I wasn't scared but I got up and
- 6:57I locked my bedroom door, got back in bed and I fell asleep
- 7:01and at 2:30 in the morning I woke up to the sound of my
- 7:04bedroom door crashing down off the hinges and my ex-husband had
- 7:09broke into my home. He was intoxicated, he had a gun
- 7:12in his hand and for the next 4 hours I was assaulted and after
- 7:17that four hours came and went. My ex-husband told me he said
- 7:21that as punishment for ruining his life, he was going to make
- 7:24me go with him to this man's house and he was going to make
- 7:28me watch him murder him. So I was taken at gunpoint.
- 7:33I got into the vehicle and of course, I was praying for Andrew
- 7:35the whole way as I was driving there just I was like, Lord put
- 7:38the angels around him. And so we got to Andrew's house
- 7:41and I watched as my ex-husband reached into the backseat.
- 7:44He got his gun, he got some extra bullets.
- 7:47He looked over at me and he said, now you go do whatever you
- 7:49need to do. And he had left the keys in the
- 7:52ignition. So I watched as he mounted the
- 7:55three steps to Andrew's house. There was a big LED front, a
- 7:59glass door. And so I watched as my
- 8:03ex-husband kicked the front door.
- 8:05I didn't see if it went in or not.
- 8:07Later I I learned he did not gain entry, but he I heard three
- 8:10gunshots and I knew that there was no way Andrew was going to
- 8:15survive this. So I jumped into the driver's
- 8:17seat and I made an escape. I got to a 24 hour super center
- 8:22and I ran in and I screamed call 911.
- 8:25And it was just maybe seconds, but it felt like minutes to me.
- 8:29It looked like everybody was just staring at me because my
- 8:31face was all bloodied and and I looked down in my hand and I had
- 8:34a cell phone in my hand that was not mine.
- 8:37And all I can figure is it came from my ex husband's vehicle.
- 8:40I must have picked it up thinking it was mine.
- 8:42And I dialed 911 from that phone and I told the police they had
- 8:47to go to this house and I said tell them to be careful because
- 8:49it's not going to end well. At that point, I was escorted
- 8:53back to the warehouse of the supercenter and I waited until a
- 8:57policeman came and he said, ma'am, we've got an ambulance
- 9:01ready for you. And he was escorting me out of
- 9:03the warehouse and I told him I said I need to go to that
- 9:07vehicle and I need to get that my cell phone because I want to
- 9:10call my family so that they don't see on the news what
- 9:13happened so that they hear it from me that I'm OK.
- 9:16So when I went to the vehicle and I opened the passenger door,
- 9:21I saw that my ex-husband was sitting behind the steering
- 9:24wheel and he was holding a gun and he was pointing a gun at my
- 9:28face. And I quickly dropped to my
- 9:30knees. I screamed and I had a police
- 9:33human shield put around me. And right away I was taken to
- 9:37safety and my ex-husband was apprehended.
- 9:41I was taken to the hospital emergency room and when I was
- 9:44there, I learned that Andrew had been shot 10 times.
- 9:47He had survived, but he had been shot 10 times and he was in and
- 9:52out of surgeries. But he was under an assumed name
- 9:55because it was a crime scene. And so when I was there in the
- 9:58emergency room, I had a phone call come in and it was actually
- 10:02Andrew's adult son. I had met his his one child one
- 10:06time and he called my phone and my daughter answered and he
- 10:10said, you know what, We wish your mom well, but we think our
- 10:14dad and your mom need to just go their separate ways.
- 10:18And so I had, you know, was in the emergency room all day.
- 10:21I was answering questions, having all these tests run.
- 10:24But my heart sank because I knew that I was going to marry
- 10:28Andrew. So when I went to my parents
- 10:32house that first night, I knew I couldn't stay there, you know,
- 10:34indefinitely. And I had an aunt and uncle who
- 10:38had a home in the South part of town and they told me that they
- 10:41were going to gift me their home for the summer.
- 10:44They said we want you to be able to heal, not go back to the
- 10:47house that all this happened in. And when they gave me a tour of
- 10:52their home, I looked in the backyard and there was a
- 10:55beautiful big pergola in the backyard.
- 10:58It had big wooden rafters, 2 big swings, and a beautiful cement
- 11:03patio floor. And when I saw it, I just knew
- 11:07that this is where I was going to begin my healing.
- 11:10I knew every morning that's where I was going to go and meet
- 11:13Jesus. And so that began that summer.
- 11:18The for four to six weeks, I actually would not hear from
- 11:21Andrew as he was going in and out of surgeries.
- 11:25I did hear from his assistant and from his work that in the
- 11:28beginning days he said he loved me and he wanted to be with me.
- 11:33But by about the third or fourth day, he said he agreed that we
- 11:36just needed to go our separate ways.
- 11:37And so I would wake up every morning at the pergola and I
- 11:42would wrap a big green blanket around me and I would lay
- 11:45prostate on the cement floor and I would just weep.
- 11:49I wept and I wept and I wept and I didn't even know that my body
- 11:53could cry that much. And I remember praying and
- 11:57telling the Lord, I said, I am so empty, I have no words and I
- 12:02am a broken shell. And I remember reading a
- 12:05scripture in Zephaniah that said God sings over us.
- 12:10And I prayed and I asked the Lord.
- 12:13I said, Lord, I'm asking you, would you sing life back into my
- 12:16body? And little by little, you know
- 12:19all the feelings of numb, all the feelings of frustration, of
- 12:22anger, of bitterness, of doubt, You know all.
- 12:26Little by little, the healing began to happen as I was there
- 12:30at the pergola. Oh, and how are you now?
- 12:36It has been eight years and I can say with with just
- 12:41everything in me that I am flourishing.
- 12:44I am doing so well. And some of that is because the
- 12:48healing is layer by layer by layer.
- 12:51And in the very beginning, Gina, you know, one of the things that
- 12:55I did, it's normal when you go through something really painful
- 12:58or traumatic, it's normal to want to control things because
- 13:03you feel so out of control that you want to control them.
- 13:06And so I found myself, you know, calling my friends and saying,
- 13:09OK, put me on every prayer chain and this is what you need to
- 13:12pray. And, and I was trying to
- 13:14manipulate. I was even telling the Lord this
- 13:16is what he needed to do. And it all involved Andrew
- 13:19coming back to me. And then I would say, but Lord,
- 13:21I trust you. But yet I really wasn't.
- 13:25And so I finally got to the point where I said, Lord, I am
- 13:29going to make a choice to trust you.
- 13:31I'm scared to trust you because what if what I want isn't what
- 13:34you want? What if you don't give me the
- 13:36things that my heart desires? And I heard a song.
- 13:41Come on my I was listening on my iPhone and I heard a song come
- 13:44on my phone and it was called Dance with Me, a Lover of my
- 13:48soul. And it was sung by a man called
- 13:50Paul Wilbur. And it was all about the Lord
- 13:53wooing us and loving us. As you know, the Bible calls us
- 13:58the bride of Christ. And I got up one day.
- 14:01It was probably maybe my second week at the pergola and I was
- 14:05wrapped in a blanket and I stood up and I said, Lord, I'm scared
- 14:08to trust you, but as a sacrifice of my praise because I don't
- 14:12feel like praising you right now.
- 14:14I said, I'm just going to physically, I got up and I put
- 14:17my body in a waltz position and I envisioned myself being held
- 14:21in the arms of Jesus and I would just waltz around that pergola
- 14:25to that song. And at the very end of it, I
- 14:28would hold out the sides. I had a bathrobe on underneath
- 14:30the blankets. I'd hold the sides of my
- 14:32bathrobe out. I would curtsy and bow and I
- 14:35would tell the Lord that I loved him.
- 14:37And this began the journey. Every morning I would go to the
- 14:41Lord and I would pour out my messy prayers.
- 14:44I would cry. I would, you know, I worked
- 14:47through so many different emotions and you know, my
- 14:50healing, it took time. It wasn't just a quick cookie
- 14:53cutter cause healing is not just linear.
- 14:56Some days I would feel like like I was on, you know, some days I
- 14:59felt like I was making so much progress, and then other days it
- 15:03felt like I was back at square one.
- 15:05But you asked how I'm doing today.
- 15:07And today, eight years later, I can say that I am truly I am
- 15:11walking in a place of healing. Amen.
- 15:15Amen. Thank you so much for being so
- 15:17vulnerable and telling that story.
- 15:19And I know myself and I know our listeners can't even begin to
- 15:25understand everything that you went through when you were
- 15:28walking through that healing journey, those days in the
- 15:30pergola. What was a verse or verses that
- 15:33were keeping you anchored? You know, during that time, I
- 15:37just kept clinging to obviously Psalm 23, when it talks about
- 15:42yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
- 15:44You're with me. It doesn't mean I'm not going to
- 15:47walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
- 15:48It doesn't mean I'm not going to go through hard times.
- 15:51But I clung to the fact that I was like, Lord, you say that
- 15:54you're with me. So even when I don't feel it,
- 15:57even when I don't sense it, I'm going to hold the fact that you
- 16:01were walking here right beside me and that you're not going to
- 16:04leave me. And then there's also a
- 16:06scripture in Psalm 34, Psalm 3418, and it says that the Lord
- 16:11is near to the broken hearted, and He saves those who are
- 16:15crushed in spirit. And so I would just remind the
- 16:17Lord. It's like I would thank Him that
- 16:19He was there even when I didn't feel it, but I took him at His
- 16:23word that He wasn't going to leave me alone.
- 16:26That's so good. So you said you're married now?
- 16:29Yeah. And so how did that come about
- 16:32then? Sure.
- 16:33Well, it was probably, I'm going to say it was about six weeks,
- 16:36five to six weeks after the assault had happened and I had
- 16:40not heard from Andrew. I knew he was in and out of
- 16:42surgeries. I would later learn that his
- 16:45kids had taken my phone number out of his phone.
- 16:47And because they just now, I don't blame them because they
- 16:50had never even met me. I mean, all they knew is their
- 16:53dad had dated somebody for four weeks and he was shot.
- 16:57So it sounded very much like a Jerry Springer show.
- 17:01So I was sitting at the pergola. I think I was drinking coffee at
- 17:04the table. And I looked down at my phone
- 17:07and there was a message of Facebook Messenger message.
- 17:11I've never been so happy for Facebook Messenger.
- 17:13And I looked down and it was from Andrew and it said, hey,
- 17:18I'm alive. And that's all it said.
- 17:20And so I responded back and I explained that I had not given
- 17:24directions. I had not LED my ex-husband into
- 17:26his house. I wanted him to know that I was.
- 17:28I was not in any way responsible for that.
- 17:31And I asked him if I could come and visit him and he said he was
- 17:34getting ready to go into the hospital for another surgery.
- 17:38And he said, I'll call you after I get out of surgery or I'll,
- 17:42I'll contact you. And he ended his message with
- 17:45the words take care. And I thought, what does that
- 17:48mean? Is it, you know, take care?
- 17:50I wish you well. Go your way.
- 17:52I'll go mine. And so that weekend was a really
- 17:55long weekend for me as I waited. And next it was like over the
- 17:59weekend. The next week, I looked down.
- 18:01I had another Facebook Messenger message from him, and it said a
- 18:05visit would be nice. Now, I was 50 years old and he
- 18:09was 53. And he said, but you've got to
- 18:12come when my kids aren't here. And so here I am.
- 18:15I'm we're sneaking around his kids so that we can see each
- 18:19other as grown adults. And I walked into his hospital
- 18:22room and I looked at him and I said, Andrew, where does this
- 18:26leave us? And he said, I don't know.
- 18:30He goes, I've read everything that happened to you in the
- 18:32charges, you know, the criminal charges.
- 18:35And he said, you're going to be really messed up.
- 18:38And he said, I know what happened to me.
- 18:40And he goes, and I'm going to be really messed up.
- 18:43And something came over me and I shook my finger in his face.
- 18:47And I said, Andrew Harr, you will never meet another woman
- 18:50like me. And four weeks later, we were
- 18:53engaged. And four months later we were
- 18:56married. And that's been eight years.
- 18:59Wow, the fact that he was in, he was in that situation and he was
- 19:05just ready to forgive and you are ready to forgive.
- 19:09You know your ex-husband as you walk through all that.
- 19:12Can you talk a little bit about that forgiveness journey?
- 19:15Sure. I don't know, You know, when it
- 19:17comes to forgiveness, I don't know that it was in that moment
- 19:20when I saw Andrew that we were talking about forgiveness.
- 19:22But while I was, while I was at the pergola, I mean, I had to do
- 19:27a lot of forgiving. And the the hardest person to
- 19:32forgive was me because it's normal when we go through
- 19:35something traumatic, it affects our self esteem and it attacks
- 19:40US. And it's a normal question to
- 19:42somehow take ownership of what happened and say what did I do
- 19:45to 'cause this? What did I do?
- 19:47Was it my fault? And for me, I even had to go
- 19:51back to 2013 and forgive myself for what I considered I had
- 19:57failed. I felt like I had failed my
- 19:59children when I got divorced. Now obviously I know I didn't
- 20:03but but that was what I told myself was I had failed my
- 20:06children. I said I had.
- 20:08I felt like I had failed God because when I got married, I
- 20:11said for better or worse, for richer, poorer, I took my vows
- 20:14as Lord. I made you a promise.
- 20:16Now, again, God doesn't want us to be in those situations.
- 20:20We are not called to be in situations like them.
- 20:24But I felt like I had let God down.
- 20:25So I had to forgive myself for that.
- 20:28I had to forgive myself. As a licensed marriage and
- 20:30family therapist. I thought I failed there.
- 20:33Here I tell people how to work on their relationships and look
- 20:37what just happened to me. And so I had to work through a
- 20:40process of forgiving myself. I had to walk through a process
- 20:44of forgiving my ex-husband. And that decision began the day
- 20:48I was assaulted. And I was one of the last things
- 20:51that it actually, it was the very last thing I ever said to
- 20:54my ex-husband. He looked down into my bloodied
- 20:57face and the intoxication was wearing off and he realized what
- 21:01he had done and he said, tell me the truth, I've gone too far.
- 21:05He said you could never forgive me.
- 21:07And I stopped for a moment and I I remember stopping and thinking
- 21:11about that what he had said. And I said, you're right, you
- 21:15have gone too far. There's no going back.
- 21:19I said. But I want you to know that this
- 21:21day I will forgive you. In the days to come I will
- 21:25forgive you. And those are the very last
- 21:28words I've ever spoken to my ex-husband.
- 21:31Now, that does not mean that in that moment I felt these
- 21:35goosebumps. And I'm forgiving and I'm not
- 21:37angry and I'm not because I was all those things.
- 21:39But I knew that that day I was making a decision.
- 21:42I didn't know what it would look like.
- 21:44I didn't know how long it would take, but I knew I was making a
- 21:47choice, that I was going to walk forward and I was going to I was
- 21:52going to eventually be able to say I have forgiven.
- 21:55And so that was, you know, there were other people to forgive.
- 21:58I had to forgive well meaning friends and questions that had
- 22:02told me stay, stay, stay in your marriage.
- 22:05Believe you know, God restores God restores and yes, God does
- 22:08restore. And you know, that is a a good
- 22:12message when it is an appropriate healthy message.
- 22:16But people people that did not know my situation and they were
- 22:19well meaning, but they were giving advice that they really
- 22:23had no business giving. And so when I went through all
- 22:26this, I had to literally walk through and say, Lord, I forgive
- 22:30those people because you know what?
- 22:32Their heart was, right? They weren't trying to hurt me.
- 22:35They were trying to help me. And though it did hurt me, I'm
- 22:38not going to hold them responsible for that.
- 22:40So, so there was an and then I had to forgive God.
- 22:44You know, Gina, God does not need our forgiveness.
- 22:46God is perfect. God is sovereign.
- 22:48But so often we hold things against God and we blame God for
- 22:53things. And I had to release God from my
- 22:56expectations of what he should or shouldn't have done.
- 22:58And I had to really. And part of that was in that
- 23:02decision that said, Lord, I'm, I don't understand.
- 23:05It's like, like our little kids when they ask us, well, but why?
- 23:08They ask us a question and they say, well, but why?
- 23:11But why 100 answers? And they keep coming back with
- 23:14but why? I had to come to grips with the
- 23:17fact that I might never know why, and I had to be OK with
- 23:20that. Yeah.
- 23:24So you've been so open with your story.
- 23:27What made you decide that now was the time to bring it out in
- 23:31book form and officially send it to the masses who may have never
- 23:36heard your story before, but who could definitely be helped by
- 23:41hearing your story? Sure.
- 23:43That was a really hard decision for me.
- 23:46I always knew I was going to write a book someday.
- 23:48In fact, this going back 20 years, I even went to a
- 23:52bookstore and I bought 2 books written by a woman with my name
- 23:56and I, I put, you know, her name was on the spine of them.
- 23:59And I bought these two books and I put them on my bookshelf
- 24:01because I knew someday I was going to write a book.
- 24:04I thought it was going to be about surviving infidelity and
- 24:07about trusting and where my book now is about trusting.
- 24:10It's not the same book I thought I was going to write.
- 24:13As a therapist, it was a really scary decision to write a book
- 24:17because typically we don't put our personal stories out there.
- 24:20But for me, I didn't want my story to be here's a woman that
- 24:25was hurt because I didn't have any control.
- 24:28The day everything happened, it was all over the news and I
- 24:32didn't have any control over what people heard or what they
- 24:35thought or anything with my story.
- 24:37And I did not want the devil to have the last word of my story.
- 24:42I did not want to be the woman that was hurt because yes, I am
- 24:47a woman that was hurt. But my real story was that I am
- 24:52a healed woman that Jesus healed, that walked through
- 24:56healing where there is hope. And I think that as a therapist,
- 25:00you know what my job is to give hope to people.
- 25:04And there's a statistic that says over 50% of women and at
- 25:09least 60% of men will go through at least one really hard,
- 25:14painful event in their lives that's considered traumatic.
- 25:16Yet a lot of them never talk about it.
- 25:19And so we, we suffer in silence. We put them mask on when people
- 25:23say how are you doing? And and everybody says fine.
- 25:25And I decided that I was going to come forward and I was going
- 25:28to remove that mask and say, you know what, I hurt too.
- 25:32I am no different than anybody else.
- 25:35There's no pain Olympics. It's not that my pain is any
- 25:39greater than anybody else's pain.
- 25:41My hurt, my loss, my feelings of betrayal are no greater than
- 25:45somebody else's feelings of of loss or betrayal or anger.
- 25:49Or it's our feelings are our feelings.
- 25:52And so I made the decision to write my story and make it
- 25:56public because I wanted people to know that there is healing
- 26:00that's possible. Definitely.
- 26:02So you have in your book, you have a section called Tools for
- 26:07Growth and Healing. So can you share how you develop
- 26:11those tools and why it's so important?
- 26:13Sure. For so many years, I have walked
- 26:15beside my clients in their pain and in their healing process.
- 26:20And I have used a bunch of different tools as a therapist.
- 26:24And now all of a sudden I was the one that was walking through
- 26:26this. And so I chose 10 tools that I
- 26:30that I use and I put them in the back of the book.
- 26:34It's the therapeutic part of the book that are very, very
- 26:37practical tools that people can use as they walk through
- 26:40healing. And they include things like the
- 26:43power of friendship and community.
- 26:45Because you know, when we go through those hard seasons, it's
- 26:49human nature to want to pull back and to isolate ourselves.
- 26:53And that's exactly where the devil wants us.
- 26:55He wants us to isolate ourselves, ourselves, to pull
- 26:58away so that he can get us to ruminate in our thoughts and to
- 27:02tell ourselves this negative self.
- 27:04Talk about nobody cares and my life is not going to be good.
- 27:07And so I talk about the power of a trusted community and trusted
- 27:11friends. I talk about the power of
- 27:13journaling and being able to express what maybe you can't
- 27:17tell anybody. How can I pour my heart out onto
- 27:20a written page where I can begin to process?
- 27:23I talk about the power of therapy and how courageous it is
- 27:27to get a wise counselor that can walk beside you.
- 27:31Not to fix your story, but to walk beside you, to make sure
- 27:35that you are healing and to keep you on track.
- 27:38I talk about the power of music because research has shown how
- 27:41music helps our body heal. I talk about the power of
- 27:45knowing the, you know, the promises of God's word because
- 27:49you know, when, when our brain says one thing, it's like if we
- 27:53know that the word of God says something different, It's like
- 27:56saying this is what I feel and what I think, but this is what I
- 28:00know and what God says. And then things like the power
- 28:03of self talk and the power of gratitude.
- 28:05And then there is several prayers in there on the power of
- 28:08forgiveness. And I've put some prayers in
- 28:11there for even the person that struggles with forgiving that
- 28:14says, God help me to even want to want to forgive.
- 28:18So they're just 10 practical tools that somebody can use as
- 28:22they're walking through their own journey.
- 28:26Well, that'll sound really helpful because we've talked on
- 28:28here a lot about community and how important it is to really
- 28:33find and vet out your tribe and to walk with, you know, they
- 28:38normally say, I've heard that if you have one or two people that
- 28:42will be your quote UN quote ride or dies that you will do well.
- 28:48And just how important it that is to vet that out.
- 28:51And also how important therapy is, because we've talked a lot
- 28:55about on here that you can love Jesus and take medication and go
- 28:58to therapy. Absolutely.
- 29:01You know, the first thing I did is I put myself in therapy as a
- 29:04therapist. I've been a therapist 18 years
- 29:07and I, well, at the time, I guess I'd been a therapist maybe
- 29:09more like 10 or 11 years. But one of the very first things
- 29:12I did is I found a good counselor and I said, I just
- 29:15need you to walk, walk with me in this.
- 29:17And I am often asked, you know, by people that maybe they're not
- 29:22the one going through something, but they may say, I know
- 29:25somebody that's going through something really hard.
- 29:27How can I help them? And during that time, some of
- 29:32the most wonderful things that my community did is they gave me
- 29:36space, but not too much space. It's like they would come check
- 29:40on me, but then they wouldn't stay forever.
- 29:42They would bring a meal and they would drop it off at the front
- 29:44door, but they wouldn't ask to stay and eat it with me.
- 29:47And so some of them might just send an encouraging text message
- 29:50or saying I'm praying for you today, or a scripture or so.
- 29:53Having a support system is such an important part of healing.
- 29:59That is so good, Kim. I really think that when people
- 30:04hear your story and when they read the book, that they are
- 30:07going to know that, number one, they're not alone and #2 that
- 30:12they can also have the freedom and the power to be able to
- 30:14share their story as well. So I want to thank you for going
- 30:19first and sharing this part of your story.
- 30:21Where can people find you? Where can they hear more about
- 30:25you and your story and get your book today?
- 30:28Sure. I have a website.
- 30:30It is kimberlyharr.com and that is just my first name, Kimberly
- 30:35Ki MB ERLY, and then my last name, Harr haar.com.
- 30:41And I'm also on social media. I'm on Instagram, Kimberly dot
- 30:46Harr and on Facebook Kimberly J Harr.
- 30:48They can get my book wherever books are sold.
- 30:52So I will put links to all of that in the show notes today.
- 30:54Again, Kim, thank you so much. Do you have one last piece of
- 30:58encouragement for my listeners today?
- 31:00You know I do. I would like to encourage
- 31:03everybody that's listening. When you are going through a
- 31:06hard season, run to God, not away from Him, because so many
- 31:11people run away from the Lord during hard times.
- 31:15And there's a scripture in Philippians 1/6 and it says, I
- 31:19am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will
- 31:24carry it to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.
- 31:28So what? God starts, He finishes, and you
- 31:32can trust Him. Amen.
- 31:34Amen. Guys.
- 31:35I will talk to you next episode and go checked him out and go
- 31:39listen to more of her story and get her book today.
- 31:41Have a great day. Thank you for tuning into this
- 31:44episode of the Anchor by the Sword podcast.
- 31:46I pray that today's episode has both encouraged and then
- 31:50challenged you in your daily walk with God.
- 31:53If it has done so, please go ahead and leave a five star
- 31:56rating and review so that others can find this podcast.
- 32:00Also, please share with your friends and family so that they
- 32:03can learn how to become more anchored in the Word of God.
- 32:06Have a blessed day and I'll talk to you next episode.