Snap Out of It: Overcoming Guilt, Shame & Rejection

By Patricia B. Pickett

Mistakes are unplanned pit stops experienced along life?s journey. Hence, you must be intentional not to allow these temporary moments to stop you from achieving great success ahead. This book empowers you to overcome negative feelings associated with failure. The authentic testimony shared in this book will push the reader beyond guilt, shame, and rejection, to an anchored place of healing and resilience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jul 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9780359798391

Book preview

Dedication

I want to take this opportunity to dedicate this book to my parents, the late Joshua and Corinda Bullock. I am grateful that in their latter years, God allowed me to minister salvation to them.

I am also grateful to the congregation of Breakthrough Ministries Church of God in Christ for praying me through this God assignment. Oh, how refreshing it was to attend noon-day prayer and hear the saints of God ask him to bless me as I wrote this book.

I dedicate this book to my wonderful husband who has loved me through every stage of my life. God has used him to cover and comfort me through the pain of insecurity and pray me through many difficult situations. He has worked hard to show me a good life and I am forever grateful. I consider him to be my lover, my confidant and friend. I also dedicate it to our three sons, Cedric, Craig Jr. and Jonathan Omar and their wonderful wives, Ashley, Porschia and LaTonja Pickett. Lastly, I dedicate this book to my three grandchildren, India Denise, Carrington Ann, and our little forever angel, Josiah Henry Pickett.

It is my prayer that you will read this book, and as a parent, watch the words you speak over your children—even when disappointed. Maybe you don’t have children, but as a caring person I encourage you to watch the words you speak over anyone, because words can hurt, haunt and kill those receiving them. If you are the person receiving the harsh words, I want to encourage you to not believe their report concerning your future, but to SNAP OUT OF IT. You are better than what is being said to you or about you. Your mistakes do not define you. God yet has a plan for your life.

Love you enough to tell you the truth!

Lady P

Introduction: How in the World Did I Get Here?

The sun hit her face as the young twenty-one-year-old college student stood in the parking lot of the grocery store with tears streaming down her face. At the same moment, an elderly church deacon was also in the parking lot, and he had taken it upon himself to rebuke her for being pregnant out of wedlock.

In the middle of his tirade, she wondered, How did I get here? Perhaps you’re in that place where you, too, are stunned, because you’ve found yourself in a mess for which you are responsible. If this describes you, take heart, for there is hope for you!

As you turn the pages of this book, expect to be healed and to encounter total freedom in God.

Chapter 1: The Truth Hurts

She knew how she had ended up at the grocery store; she had taken her mother to pick up some things she needed. When she saw her mother exiting the store, Ann got out to open the trunk of her car, only to discover the deacon was headed in her direction. By then, it was too late for her to escape unnoticed. When he finally reached her, she smiled then said a soft hello, before staring at the ground in embarrassment, after seeing his scathing look.

Instead of asking her how she was doing he began to rebuke her. His words were like a dagger in her heart. "Look at you! My wife cried when she heard about you.I didn’t cry because I knew that there was nothing to you anyway." By that time her mother had reached the car with her groceries. Ann took the bags and loaded them in the trunk as tears streamed down her face.

As if it was an everyday occurrence, the deacon began to make small talk with her mother before returning to his car. She was stunned. How could she ever recover after such a damning pronouncement, especially from a man whom she’d always held in high regard? He had accused her of living a lie all of her life instead of assuming that she’d merely fallen along the way. Where do you go once you have been called a nothing? In her mind, that word was associated with a slut or whore. Would others in her circle see her in that same light? Just the thought made her sick—made her wish the ground would open and swallow her whole.