My Skinned Knee

It was summer vacation, in the ‘80s, and I was doing what I loved to do every day, run and play outside. I lived to run! I remember running down the sidewalk from my friends’ house to my house and I tripped, fell, and skinned my knee! I skinned it BAD…to the white meat bad! I remember grabbing my leg in pain, screaming and crying, and looking at my knee through my tear-filled eyes all at the same time. I remember noticing that a patch of skin was gone, and that area of my knee was white, and then it quickly began to turn bright red because it began to bleed. I hobbled inside the house, screaming and crying the whole time my mother doctored my knee. She cleaned it, sprayed some antiseptic on it, and then bandaged it. For the next few days my knee was sore so I wasn’t able to run, but I still wanted to play outside. As each day passed, my knee healed a little more, and it didn’t hurt as much. After about a week, although there was still a scab on my knee, it didn’t hurt any more, and I was back to running, and playing with my friends. That same week, I was running down the same sidewalk, and I tripped and fell in the same spot again, and I skinned the same knee in the same spot! This time the pain was excruciating! I limped in the house, screaming and crying for my mommy! She doctored my knee again and this time I noticed it took a little longer for it to heal because I re-injured an area that was still in the healing process.

Over twenty years later, I still have a scar on my knee from those injuries. I still remember the pain of that experience as if it happened yesterday. As the years passed, and I began to mature, I experienced different injuries and pain, not so much to my physical body, but more so to my emotional spirit. I think the greatest pain one endures stems from relationships; whether the nature of the relationship is professional-work related or a business partner, personal-friendships or family, or romantic-significant other or husband/wife, if the relationships are not producing fruit, then they are causing decay in our lives. I am a firm believer that every relationship is predestined to serve a purpose, to help us grow spiritually, mentally, and emotionally; to ultimately put us on the path of accomplishing our purpose here on earth. Attached to those relationships is a season. Each season is unique because it has a specific time. When the season has run its course, then the relationship ends. Healing is unique as well. We must go through the healing process for it to be effective, or else we run the risk of re-injuring our inner being-our heart, spirit, and soul, which should all bring us positive fruits. Galatians 5:22-23 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

During 2013, I began to examine my relationships. I looked at how many were producing the kind of fruit I needed in my life-that Godly fruit! I also examined how many I needed to release and heal from to make room for those I not only desired, but also were entitled to as a child of God! I began to look at the seeds I was sowing, and the return I was reaping…the fruit wasn’t not matching my seed in a lot of my relationships! Through prayer, God showed me it was because I was holding on to relationships that had run their course in my life. The season for the relationship had ended, yet I was still holding on to it and it was causing decay in my life. So many times, I have found myself putting a bandage on my inner being not realizing I was neglecting my own healing. I was entering the same kind of relationships, with different people, only that time with a new, bigger bandage, because I didn’t realize my healing was a process that had to come from within.

When my knee healed completely after the second fall, I still ran down that same sidewalk every day, but now I was consciously aware of the area that I fell, so I avoided it by going around it or just slowed down when I got to it because I didn’t want to experience the pain of another busted knee! In my adult life, I had to get tired of reaping the same seeds from relationships before I awakened to my healing process. I had to let go of the baggage from expired relationships to go through a “cleansing season” for the healing to take place. Healing takes time and the deeper the wound, in most cases, the longer it takes for the healing to occur. The great news is GOD IS A RESTORER! “I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust ate, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust– My great army that I sent against you” (Joel 2:25), time is no object to God!

During my cleansing, I had to forgive, let go of things I was holding on to through prayer, and focus on the good I desired to receive in my life. For me, all of those steps took a great deal of faith because I had no idea who I could trust in a lot of situations but God, and trusting God takes faith! 2013 taught me my healing is essential to moving forward in life with my desires, goals, and aspirations!

10 Things I Learned in 2013:

1. I have to let go of all baggage to move forward with the new I desire in my life.
2. My healing is essential to moving forward in life with my desires, goals, and aspirations!