Isaiah 50:7 For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
Symptoms of Shame
Lack of Eye Contact
Anxiety
Depression
Intense feelings of inadequacy
anger
inferiority
self-hatred
a disconnect from others (them and you)
always feeling exposed, like others will sniff out your weaknesses and reject you
feeling emotionally numb
perfectionism
People Pleasing
Chronic Guilt
Feeling like a failure
Feeling unimportant and unlovable
Feeling like a fake and a phoney all the time
Feeling defective
Self sabotaging behaviours
Fear of speaking you mind or being yourself
Blaming others for your problems
Bullying others
judgmental behaviour
codependency
over apologizing!
Fear of getting too close to people
I’ll reject (leave) you, before you leave me
PHEW!!!! these are just the surface of the effects of shame in our lives.
It’s overwhelming isn’t it, but there is hope, there is always hope in these circumstances. When I was reading on shame a few days ago I was really hit hard with the idea that I still carried some symptoms of shame, and to be honest it overwhelmed me. “How am I going to fix this?” I asked. Haha, isn’t that the 1st part of my problem?
I came to one conclusion, it will have to be supernatural and I know one thing, God’s love for me will have a lot to do with it.
I am both overwhelmed and excited at pursuing God’s full healing and restoration in this, so that I walk less limped and I can help others too.
The Baby Mama says:
You have to stop this – reading my mind and writing what I am thinking or feeling. 🙂 Another post that feels like I could’ve written this – word for word. My deepest shame is coming from a broken home. Out of all my friends, I am the only one to come from a divorced family. And that shame still haunts me. I don’t talk about my family to people I know – at work or socially. I’m embarrassed by it and by them. And another thing that shames me greatly is my body. When I was skinny, I didn’t wear shorts or a costume because I felt shame (not embarrassment or just being shy), but shame about who I was and what I looked like. Now that I am carrying extra weight, guess what – that shame is still there. And a little while ago, I too came to the conclusion that this is my life – I don’t have anything to be ashamed of. This is me – God’s beautiful little girl whom He so dearly loves. And its a process – it’s walking out the realization that we belong to God and there is nothing to be ashamed of. But, I can tell you, that I saw a huge difference in how I related to life’s circumstances and how other’s did. It was only after I was married and could compare my family with hubby’s that I realized it was shame that I was battling with. Thank you once again for an amazing article.
virtuouswomanx says:
Thanks for sharing your heart. I pray your shame supernaturally lifts off of you in Jesus Name, and you can grab a glimpse of how precious you are, and how perfected you are. I too come from a divorced family and there is something about divorce that makes the child of it, feel like they were to blame in some way and they feel like 1/2 a person, and shame comes in. We know as adults that marriages are hard work, and that circumstances just happen and logically we know it’s not our fault, but as a children we don’t understand that and we carry the shame of it. I totally get that!