Follow Up Guest Post from Catherine DiNuzzo – “You’re Worth It!”
This post is a follow-up guest post from Catherine DiNuzzo, wife of Dave DiNuzzo. Catherine will continue to guest post on this site. Please leave comments!
Women, you are worth a TrueMan! Believe it!
Women, I want you to listen to me and to listen well. If you come to this site and take anything from it, I want you to remember that you are special, and a precious gift from the Father! You are worth a TrueMan and you need to expect a TrueMan. I am guessing right now that you may be rolling your eyes and saying to yourself, “if she only knew what I have done or what has happend to me, she would know this is not true for me.” I know you are saying this because every time I talk to my girlfriends or speak to women at speaking engagements about this, I see women look down and shy away from me; their body language screaming these words.
God created you in His image and as the perfect mate for your “Adam”. If God created you, and everything that God creates is good, then you must be worthy of goodness… a TrueMan. When I think about my friends who refuse to believe this “cardinal rule”, most of the time it is because some less-than-virtuous man has taken advantage of them. Sometimes this is done through psychological manipulation and other times by force. To me, it doesn’t matter what has happened in your past. What is important is where you go from here. If women are going to expect men to change then we must also change. The first step in this change is loving yourself enough to except only virtuous men in your life.
How do you do it, you ask? First of all, you need to look inside yourself and break down any walls that are keeping you from seeing the true value you possess. These walls may have been past relationships gone bad, decisions that you made that hurt yourself or others, or anything that holds you back from seeing the marvelous treasure that God created you to be.
I too had to go through this step, and it was not easy. When I was in high school and college, I was in a very abusive relationship, both physically and mentally. It ended badly and with the depression that set in from being a victim of domestic violence, I turned to drinking in excess. With my life spinning downward, I had no confidence that I could ever love myself again. I was certain that I would never find a virtuous “TrueMan” who would want to love me. So, I stopped looking. After many years of this way of thinking, I was at a 3-day party, with lots of drinking and men. As I drove home, I hit my bottom. I had no self esteem, no joy in my life. I could easily say I was empty in every sense of the word. So in tears, I looked up to Heaven and said “GOD, I give up! I can’t don’t do this anymore.” I truly believe that I felt the Holy Spirit come down and shower me with grace and love. I could hear God saying, “I love you, let me take care of you, trust in my love, I am here.” And that is what I did! From that point on, pain from my past slowly started to go away. For the first time in seven years, I was able to see myself as a blessed gift that God had created. That very day, I went on a group date with Dave, my future husband!
Women, love yourself! Force yourself to see the treasure that God has created you to be. If there are walls that are blocking you from seeing this, take it to prayer and ask God to help you break down the walls. Know that in this battle, you are not alone. God is there wait for you to put your hand out and ask for help.
Thanks for the great insight Catherine! I really needed to hear this, especially after my last break-up. It’s still hard to believe though that I am special at all. After several bad relationships and finally one good one that just ended, I feel like I’m never going to find my “Adam”. I’m honestly just tired of trying to find him and failing miserably everytime. Any advice?
Angie,
Thank you so much for your comment because I know there are hundreds, if not millions of women out there feeling the same way. First I want you to know that I understand that what I am asking is hard and that there are times when there is this overwhelming feeling that “if I have not found my “Adam” yet then what is wrong with me?” I felt this way for so long after my initial break up with the guy I thought was “the one” for lack of a better term. What I came to realize through time and prayer was that God was not ready for me to meet my “Adam” yet. A good friend of mine once said to me, when I posed her the same question. She said “you have to stop praying to God that you will meet a guy to marry, and start praying that God will continue to prepare you and your future spouse for each other; also pray that God will grace you with the patience to trust that God already knows who you will marry and that he will show you in His time.”
The key to this is in His time. God loves you, and if you are in a relationship or not this fact does not and never will change. God created you to be gift to the world and with his love he will only do what is best for you. Therefore, I challenge you in this hard time to stop asking the question “What is wrong with me?” And start asking yourself, “What did God want me to learn from this experience? How can I take what I have learned from this relationship to better prepare me for the “Adam” God has created for me?” Assuming you have determined that God is calling you to the married life, then I can say whole heartily that there is an “Adam” out there waiting for you also. Trust in God’s endless love for you and open yourself to his time.
Catherine