Faith Pennington "Help Me Prove It" updates

[Peas n carrots]

Well well well Lisa has posted a thinly veiled c*nty post on "forgiveness." Someone tie her to a wooden stake and light a fire...she desperately wants to be a martyr.

thepenningtonpoint.com/2015/05/the-art-of-forgiveness/

Forgiving can be really hard to do.

But have you ever though of it as art? Art is enchanting and art is messy and each workmanship is unique. It involves creativity and humanness and mistakes. You can’t have a quality piece of art without a lot of trial and error and erasing and lessons.

A sculpture starts as a lump of clay. It gets mashed and twisted and wet and cut and if I were that clay I believe I’d be hoping that part was over soon. If I were the painter’s canvas I’d be hating the part where I am smeared with wet brushes and then have it all wiped off while the artist stared at me with concern or worse yet….sets me aside for another day.

We all want the ending….the beauty….the admiration….the high praise and worth. But we don’t really want what it takes to get there.

And what, you may wonder, does any of this have to do with forgiveness? Just everything!

THE STORY

A girl, Sue, gets hurt by a friend. Not just “you hurt my feelings†kind of hurt, but deeply betrayed and wounded. She is cruelly judged and without warning, the friendship is over and the betrayer has cast Sue out like a worthless piece of garbage. Sue is shocked and devastated. This is a wound that feels unhealable. The betrayal shakes her to the core and threatens all of her other relationships. How can she trust anyone else after this? And to top it off, the betrayer continues to stab, gossip, lie and attack. How will poor Sue ever recover? She is devastated by someone she believed was on her side in life. She questions her own ability to discern whether someone is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

She fights the urge to hurt back.

She crawls in the corner of her bedroom (i.e. under the covers with chocolate) and licks her wounds. She cries to herself then cries to God. He comforts her, but it’s still so incredibly painful. She doesn’t lose her faith. She continues to believe what God tells her….that He will be her defender. That she can trust Him. But the betrayer doesn’t leave Sue alone. Every time Sue thinks she is starting to recover another dart of her now-ex-friend comes flying toward her. Pain all over again.

More crying. More chocolate.

Slowly, with time, she begins to heal. Every day she seeks comfort and every day He gives it to her. God touches her sad, broken heart with His love and grace and one crack at a time He glues her back together. But she is changed. She can’t ever be the same old Sue. She has found a place in herself that only the wounds could have shown her. She has experienced a depth of love from God that she never needed before. Her eyes have been opened and she has a new kind of wisdom.

This wisdom is has been gained through suffering.

The betrayer doesn’t stop and the problem stays unresolved. But Sue is getting stronger and doesn’t fall quite so hard the next time a dart flies. She sees it coming. She ducks just in time for it to only graze her. The wound is smaller.

The healing comes more quickly.

But then, the hardest part is yet to come. Forgiving the betrayer. Wishing good things for this now-ex-friend who claims to be so grateful for God’s grace but stabs people in the back, is going to be the hardest part of the healing.

Sue isn’t sure if she can do it, but she has come this far.

She must keep going.

Let’s stop here for a minute. This story could be about any of us. We have all been deeply wounded at some point. By a friend, a spouse, a child, a pastor, a parent. Recovery is slow but we are His clay, we are His canvas. The splats and messes and manipulating of the materials….the pounding of the chisel, that is painful! We can’t become a masterpiece without it. We can’t have genuine wisdom without having suffered, and wounds from a loved one are the worst kind of suffering. Give me a broken leg over a broken heart any day!

Insert Jesus Babble

The Forgiveness.

Sue, bit by bit and moment by moment, forgives her betrayer. Somewhere along the way she decided that each time the bitterness wells up or the pain sears through her heart, she will release it. She will, even though at first she doesn’t want to, pray for the betrayer and for all of those who took the betrayer’s side. Those who sent their own darts of ignorant judgment and added to the misery. Those who believed the betrayer out of their own weakness…..she will pray for their peace.

She will ask for God to heal them too.

As she makes the shift from hurt to healed, she begins to see bits of her own part in the problem, ways she contributed. Calling bullshit on this one She asks Him to forgive her as well. She sees her imperfections and lays them at His feet. “Take my weakness Lord, use them for your glory,†she cries. She continues to work daily to forgive both herself and her perceived-enemies.

It isn’t instant. Sue falls back sometimes. Like the artist who doesn’t quite like the angle of the lines, she has to occasionally erase and try again. But as she slowly matures and changes, she can see the beauty emerging. She begins to see how the pain of the situation has shaped her. When the betrayer lashes out with more accusations, Sue quietly slips back and sadly prays again for the now-ex-friend; half of her sadness stems from the betrayers not knowing how hard Sue is working to give love in return for the hate. If only the betrayer could see Sue’s heart, but she knows that can’t happen.

More growth. More lessons. More Bullshit

Others begin to notice the difference in Sue. Someone tells her how they saw the whole thing from afar….they watched the art being created and are inspired by the beauty of what she is becoming. Another person tells her how blessed they have been by her gentleness with the situation. It gives her strength.

She continues to allow herself to be shaped, the forgiveness continues to become easier and easier as she lets it go each time….refusing to let the bitterness have her. Never giving in to the temptation to hurt back. Every time she releases the hurt she can feel the shift in who she is. Sue becomes a woman after God’s own heart. It is slow, years of pain and trial and error. But she eventually becomes a work of art, chipped away and shaped into something she could not have created on her own

She is refined into a work of art so grand, so breathtaking, that she is amazed herself. Someone thinks highly of themself!!!

Look what God did!!!

THE END

Each with our own betrayal stories, we know that the betrayer might stay the same. The darts may keep flying. And certainly there will be more betrayals down the road. More heartbreak. But if we allow it to become a work of art, being shaped in God’s hands, then He promises to use it for our good and His glory.

If you are dealing with a betrayer in your life, I want to encourage you to see it as a forming masterpiece in you! We are each as unique as the snowflakes and I don’t know how you should handle specific situations. But I do know that even if nothing around you changes and if darts are flying all around your head (believe me…I understand that!) that inside of you there is indescribable beauty being created! Give it to God and let Him turn you into something that shines with His glory and radiates His love.

Here are a few books that have helped me through my own story of betrayal and hurt:

1. Wounded by God’s People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts by Ann Graham Lotz

2. Between a Rock and a Grace Place: Divine Surprises in the Tight Spots of Life by Carol Kent

3. Choosing Forgiveness: Your Journey to Freedom by Nancy Leigh DeMoss

4. Total Forgiveness by R.T. Kendall

5. Surviving One Bad Year: 7 Spiritual Strategies to Lead You to a New Beginning by Nancie Carmichael

Lisa is wrong. The only lesson here is that Lisa has learned nothing.

[Grimalkin]

1,000-some sales of a $36 item = $36,000 gross to "help make ends meet"??!!!

Well, sure. Because those ugly hipster dresses don't buy themselves.

Also, wrt Lisa's whiny-ass Mothers Day post--last I looked, she has more than half a dozen other children still resignedly under her thumb. No thought given to thAnking God for them? What's that you say? Chopped liver? Well, sure...

About Lisa's crazy patchwork dresses, a friend I have always dresses really cute, it seems she buys a majority of her clothes at Zulily, I have been going on there the past few days and most the stuff just made me think of her.

I think her MD post is offensive. Why not talk about how wonderful her other kids are. Maybe aknowledge how well they take care of her. Cooking, cleaning, laundry, shopping........why not thank your kids?

[Marian the Librarian]

About Lisa's crazy patchwork dresses, a friend I have always dresses really cute, it seems she buys a majority of her clothes at Zulily, I have been going on there the past few days and most the stuff just made me think of her.

I think her MD post is offensive. Why not talk about how wonderful her other kids are. Maybe aknowledge how well they take care of her. Cooking, cleaning, laundry, shopping........why not thank your kids?

It would never occur to Lisa to thank her kids. They exist for the sole purpose of serving and working for their parents, and worshiping at the Church Of Mom and Dad. Per Faith's "Help Me Prove It" FB description of life at home (bolding mine):

Each homeschool high school graduated child had to work 8 hours a day for my parents in exchange for living there -- but we were not allowed to get a job or move out.

If a non-relative were treated this way, it would be called slavery.

[Grimalkin]

It would never occur to Lisa to thank her kids. They exist for the sole purpose of serving and working for their parents, and worshiping at the Church Of Mom and Dad. Per Faith's "Help Me Prove It" FB description of life at home (bolding mine):

If a non-relative were treated this way, it would be called slavery.

I can't find where it is on her help me prove it page. I have been scanning through the comments.

[DaffyDill]

If there was any doubt at all that Lisa is totally and completely full of herself, check out the pictures she has posted of herself on this post:

thepenningtonpoint.com/2015/05/a-second-honeymoon/

Good god... Lots of filters and bright exposures used to hide those wrinkles, too. Vanity at it's best worst

Here's a wee sample...of how she wore her hair out and about at Disneyland...one of three styles.

[Marian the Librarian]

Marian, When I go on the FB page I cannot find where the conversation is that you posted. Can you point me in the right direction?

Faith posted a link yesterday to a FOX TV News story, heading it with "Here's what's been happening in our fight to prove it!" The news story is called "Birth Certificate Battle." The comments and discussions/Q&A are under that.

[LovelyLuna]

If there was any doubt at all that Lisa is totally and completely full of herself, check out the pictures she has posted of herself on this post:

thepenningtonpoint.com/2015/05/a-second-honeymoon/

Good god... Lots of filters and bright exposures used to hide those wrinkles, too. Vanity at it's best worst

Here's a wee sample...of how she wore her hair out and about at Disneyland...one of three styles.

I can imagine how fucking happy thos kids were to have them gone for a few days. maybe they sleet till 7:30 ::gasp::. I’m sure they had sweat shop quotas to fill but damn I bet having the jailers gone felt good.

Also I didn’t know cabana boys were fundie approved. I also found it sadly amusing that she assumes all the dads at Disney had college degrees when their children don’t even have identities. :angry-banghead:

[Ms Lucy Fur]

I hope yall know I am not looking for sympathy here!

:shock: :shock: :shock:

[VVV]

Lisa has an Etsy shop where she sells stuff crap like racks for essential oils, mason jar straw lids, and chalkboard labels. The shop is closed right now because she says they will be on vacation for a few weeks.

etsy.com/shop/Shop24

Fixed that for you.

[VVV]

I can't find where it is on her help me prove it page. I have been scanning through the comments.

Most of the relevant discussion is in the form of replies to the comment from John W.: Wait, your father is actually arguing against this?

Like · Reply · 2 · Yesterday at 8:55am

You have to click on "Replies" (at last count there were 27 of them) to open up that discussion.

[Cartmann99]

1,000-some sales of a $36 item = $36,000 gross to "help make ends meet"??!!!

Well, sure. Because those ugly hipster dresses don't buy themselves.

Also, wrt Lisa's whiny-ass Mothers Day post--last I looked, she has more than half a dozen other children still resignedly under her thumb. No thought given to thAnking God for them? What's that you say? Chopped liver? Well, sure...

I think she needs the money to pay her electric bills. See this post:

thepenningtonpoint.com/2015/04/good-thing-im-not-keeping-score/

Speaking of full schedules, I sometimes long for the days when we were less mobile and less busy. Although, if that means I’d also have no A/C I might have to stick with the hustle and bustle of 2015. I’m useless if it gets above 73°.

I’m serious. When it’s 73°, I’m comfortable. If it hits 74°, I’m sweating and leaning over the oscillating fan.

James says I’m like the princess and the pea, only with the thermometer.

Unless they've got some serious insulation, triple-paned windows, etc... they are paying a pretty penny to keep their home at less than 74F for most of the year.

[VVV]

Lisa likes to claim they are on a tight budget, but there is not one shred of supporting evidence on either her blog or her FB page for that. :angry-banghead:

[salex]

Disney trips for 2 adults is not my sort of trip, but I know people who love it. My one trip to Epcot was more than enough for me.

But, that hair. What the ever loving fuck is she trying to do, scare the little children with that Medusa hairstyle?

[Grimalkin]

Most of the relevant discussion is in the form of replies to the comment from John W.: Wait, your father is actually arguing against this?

Like · Reply · 2 · Yesterday at 8:55am

You have to click on "Replies" (at last count there were 27 of them) to open up that discussion.

Thanks! I saw that when I first watched the video, she had only replied that it did not make sense to her either, or something like that.

I like how well she expresses herself. Looks like they did something right when homeschooling her, though they would disagree.

[formergothardite]

Disney trips for 2 adults is not my sort of trip, but I know people who love it. My one trip to Epcot was more than enough for me.

But, that hair. What the ever loving fuck is she trying to do, scare the little children with that Medusa hairstyle?

Scary beyond all reason was the thought that crossed my mind when seeing her Disney pictures.

[Cartmann99]

Disney trips for 2 adults is not my sort of trip, but I know people who love it. My one trip to Epcot was more than enough for me.

But, that hair. What the ever loving fuck is she trying to do, scare the little children with that Medusa hairstyle?

To me, it looks like something you might do in your bathroom before applying a facial mask or peel to your forehead. :lol:

[lulumama]

To me, the hair at Disney, smacks at having to call attention to yourself at all times. Just NO! :o

[Imrlgoddess]

That woman makes my blood boil. I have to take periodic breaks from the stories/blogs/info about the Pennington's or the Jeub's.... I just want to grab my child, color her hair neon green, shove a copy of Catcher in the Rye in her hand and make her play music on the street in San Francisco for about a month. :violin: :drumroll:

Protection, I get.

Moral code, I get.

Structure, I get.

Faith, I get.

Discipline, I get.

Hell even the instillation of a work ethic.

I can't stomach needing so much control over something or someone that you go out of your way to kill any individuality. Is free thought truly that scary to some? Or are there people so completely insecure about their own abilities to raise a well rounded, morally just person that they go to extremes.....? :wtf: :shock:

[ThisOlGirl]

It was mentioned earlier that the adult children have to work at home in exchange for room and board but aren't allowed to get an outside job. If the kids, once they turned 18 were to call the cops and say they were being held against their will, could the parents be charged with anything?

[VVV]

It was mentioned earlier that the adult children have to work at home in exchange for room and board but aren't allowed to get an outside job. If the kids, once they turned 18 were to call the cops and say they were being held against their will, could the parents be charged with anything?

How would the adult children prove that they are adult? I guess the oldest two have drivers licenses now (acquired in their 20s ) but that would not have been an option for Faith. No birth certificate, drivers license, no proof that they are in fact adult.

[ILoveJellybeans]

How would the adult children prove that they are adult? I guess the oldest two have drivers licenses now (acquired in their 20s ) but that would not have been an option for Faith. No birth certificate, drivers license, no proof that they are in fact adult.

OMG I never thought of that, but yeah, there is no proof that they are adults. If theres no documentation of them, their parents could lie and say their kid is 17, not 20, if they tried doing that.

[Bethella]

OMG I never thought of that, but yeah, there is no proof that they are adults. If theres no documentation of them, their parents could lie and say their kid is 17, not 20, if they tried doing that.

It might work, but only for so long. If they claimed the child had just turned 17, in 12 months the child would be "18" whether the parents like it or not. And there are most likely some records of the child somewhere in the world that could establish a minimum age (for example Faith has a baptism certificate, which is not enough to establish her identity legally but might be enough to show that she existed at that point in time and must be at least x number of years old).

[nelliebelle1197]

I just hate this woman and her stupid hair. She is just a vile person. I actually would rather be in the Hamster Cage of Horrors than stuck in Lisa's Shabby Chic Cottage from Hell. It has to be like the movie Groundhog Day in there. Nothing ever changes and no one ever grows up.

Could you imagine marrying a Pennington and having that person and her horrible hair as you MIL?

[lemondrop]

Well well well Lisa has posted a thinly veiled c*nty post on "forgiveness." Someone tie her to a wooden stake and light a fire...she desperately wants to be a martyr.

thepenningtonpoint.com/2015/05/the-art-of-forgiveness/

< snip lots of Lisa's narcissistic bullshit >

1. Wounded by God’s People: Discovering How God’s Love Heals Our Hearts by Ann Graham Lotz

2. Between a Rock and a Grace Place: Divine Surprises in the Tight Spots of Life by Carol Kent

3. Choosing Forgiveness: Your Journey to Freedom by Nancy Leigh DeMoss

4. Total Forgiveness by R.T. Kendall

5. Surviving One Bad Year: 7 Spiritual Strategies to Lead You to a New Beginning by Nancie Carmichael

Lisa is wrong. The only lesson here is that Lisa has learned nothing.

[J'Lurker]

It isn't her hair, or her face, or her make-up, or her clothes... it's the unctuous narcissism that can't help but seep through, even in just a picture. :ew: If she weren't so--Lisa-- she would be perfectly fine looks/style-wise.

The interview at the statehouse was the first time I have heard James Pennington speak. I was shocked by how cold his tone was. He's the kind of man you cross the street so you don't have to walk near, because every intuitive fiber in your being tells you he's bad news and you need to stay away from him.

I really and truly feel awful that there isn't more we can do to help every child (and adult children) in this situation.

So impressed by Faith. So much respect for her, and her courage in being a voice to bring light to something that could have continued for generations. (But won't, because of her! :dance: ) And, on a more superficial note: Faith looked fantastic at the hearing(?)! Her outfit looked great, and she looked confident and comfortable in her own skin. She's got fire behind her eyes, not the usual defeated blankness.

Good for you, Faith! (And your obviously lovely grandparents!) Best of luck!