What fills you on Easter?

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 17, 2022

When you think about Easter, what comes to your mind the most? Is it getting together with family and friends? Is it decorating, buying candy or hiding eggs? Maybe getting dressed up? Carrying on a family tradition?

For some, it is going to church and hearing about how Jesus walked out of the Sepulcher. For me it is thinking about all the people who believed that Jesus was the Son of God and then watching Him die on the cross. Imagine if you were there. Would you feel as if what you believed had just been proven wrong? Or, would you remember the other things you saw happen with your own eyes that Jesus did?

Would you remember seeing the lame walk, the blind see, the crowd being fed by five loaves of bread and two fish? Would you remember what it was like to hear His voice and feel the your soul being lifted up by His words? Would you still believe He was the Son of God and His life was not really over?

There are things we may think are impossible, until we see them with our own eyes. Still, when other things happen, we tend to forget about God turning hopeless situations into miracles. I imagine the people spent three days feeling as if an innocent, wonderful man, was put to death and that was the end of His story. His mission and life ended as far as they knew and with Him went their hopes.

Then think about what it was like for them to hear that the Sepulcher was empty and He lived. Think about those who were with Him and fearing for their own lives, and then seeing Him, hearing His voice, looking into His eyes and seeing the marks on His hands and feet. The impossible became possible. People knew that what they believed was actually true and the knew everything He said to them was true.

We all know what it is like to do the right thing and suffer for it. We know what it is like to be praised for helping someone by the same people who walk away when we ask for help. We know what it is like to want to visit the lonely people we know, call them and pray for them, as much as we know what it is like when no one is there for us.

We know what it is like to hunger for hope when it seems no matter what we do, how many times we ask for help or search for solutions, nothing changes. Then we wonder why we are left abandoned by those we stood by. Why were we left hungry by those we fed? Why are we not worthy of support by those we supported?

Jesus had served His Father and did what He was sent to do. He suffered for it but then was glorified. He knows everything we're going through, including getting angry, crying and struggling to do the right thing.

We celebrate His birth and His Resurrection, but we forget about how His life matters in our own. Nothing we go through is not known and experienced by Him. He knows what it is like when we lose hope, feel as if no one cares about us. When people do not believe what we say. When we are abandon and let alone. He knows what it is like to do what God wants us to do, and suffer for it. What it is like to help others, but no one will help us.

He also knows what it is like to feel being a part of miracles to others. He wanted to save everyone and heal everyone, but not everyone wanted what He had to give. That did not stop Him from doing what He could and nothing stop Him from doing what He can now.

No matter how lonely you are, because of Him, God hears our prayers. No matter how we are treated, God sees it and He will not abandon us. People walk away from us but The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are always with us. I know I am comforted by all the times when everything seemed so hopeless for me, but God turned it all around. Right now, I am comforted knowing no matter how lonely I feel, God is still there and trying to work things out for the miracle I've been praying for. He is there for you too.

This Easter Day, remember what this day is truly about and let it fill you with the hope of miracles in your own life everyday and let it guide you to being part of a miracle to others.

Kathie Costos author of healing PTSD books.

Latest books

The Lost Son

Part One

Alive Again
The Lost Son Part Two

Stranger Angels
The Lost Son Part Three

Not doing what was needed cost company $450,000

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 16, 2022

The headline on WLKY News "Kentucky man sues employer for throwing him birthday party, and now they owe him $450K" was a bad choice. Given the fact that an employee told his supervisor he needed her to skip honoring his birthday, she decided to do it anyway. Why? Why would someone want to do something for someone that was clearly going to hurt them? Was she so oblivious to the fact that even telling her he had a problem with it was not enough to get her to change her mind?

The employee found out about the party and was so stressed out about it that he went to his car instead of going to the lunchroom. He ended up being fired!
 

A Kentucky man took his employer to court after they threw him a birthday party he didn't want, and the jurors sided with him.

Now, his employer owes him $450,000.

The verdict was handed down this week in Kenton County Circuit Court in Northern Kentucky. The plaintiff, an employee of Gravity Diagnostics, sued his employer after he was fired following a birthday party they threw for him in August.

The employee asked the office manager days before his birthday in August to not arrange a birthday celebration as they did for other employees.

Then on Aug. 7, the employee's birthday, the office arranged for a lunchtime birthday party in the lunchroom, according to the lawsuit. The employee said that he found out about the party as he was headed to his lunch break, which triggered a panic attack.
read more here

This goes to show that not doing what was needed was not intended to be a good thing to the recipient. How many times have you told someone what you needed help with, but they ignored what you needed and did only what they wanted to do "for you" that you didn't want or need in the first place?

It happens all the time. It means they are doing it to make themselves feel good about themselves and not making your life any easier.

When you have a mental illness, you know what your triggers are and you do all you can to avoid them. You know what they will cause you to go through. This employee was caused to suffer for this "gift" given to him he didn't want. He must have had to explain it to his coworkers, causing even more emotional pain, and then had to face more with his supervisor, topped off with higher-ups who then fired him.

All the avoidable distress caused should be a lesson to everyone out there, especially in the workplace. How many of us have been in a forced situation like that? You tell family you don't want parties but they do it anyone because they think you deserve to have some fun. You tell them you don't want to go to a party or movie or in large crowds, and then they get angry because you won't go with them. 

You need to be left out of it without being punished for it. It is a no-win situation for you. Most of us cringe when it comes to the approaching event someone is talking about because we know it will cause us pain to go and more pain if we don't because the people who are supposed to know us don't understand us.

If you are going through something like this and need to let people know how much harm they are doing by doing what they want instead of what you need, show them this article so they will understand how much pain they can inflict instead of making you feel the way they want you to feel.

They drove "a stake in the heart of the federal republic"

Now we know why only a few Republicans wanted to learn the truth about January 6th and hold people accountable. This is our country. This is our future. We're sadly accustomed to politicans lying to get our votes. We're not now, nor should we ever become accustomed them trying to nullify our votes because they didn't like the way we used our right to vote. 

Everything that has happened in our lives since then has been tied to them participating in it and blocking any attempt fix what we need done. Taking down the party that actually won is more important than taking care of us. They believe we have short memories and attention spans. They want us to forget what they did to us, and worse, what they tried to do to us. It is time to hold them all accountable and for truth to matter.  

CNN Exclusive: 'We need ammo. We need fraud examples. We need it this weekend.' What the Meadows texts reveal about how two Trump congressional allies lobbied the White House to overturn the election.

CNN
By Ryan Nobles, Annie Grayer, Zachary Cohen and Jamie Gangel
April 15, 2022

"We're driving a stake in the heart of the federal republic," Roy texted Meadows on January 1.

Washington (CNN) In the weeks between the 2020 election and the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, almost 100 text messages from two staunch GOP allies of then-President Donald Trump reveal an aggressive attempt to lobby, encourage and eventually warn the White House over its efforts to overturn the election, according to messages obtained by the House select committee and reviewed by CNN.

In a January 3 text to Meadows, Lee argued that Trump's effort to have states send alternate slates of electors to Congress was not legitimate.

"I only know that this will end badly for the President unless we have the Constitution on our side," Lee texted in a note to Meadows. "And unless these states submit new slates of Trump electors pursuant to state law, we do not," Lee wrote to Meadows.

As CNN has previously reported, the plan to replace authentic electors with fake ones in a handful of swing states was orchestrated by allies of the former President and overseen by his then-attorney Giuliani.
read more here

Father Stu proves what you can do to #makemiracles

When you know miracles are happening, you have a choice to either feel good you know and walk away, or want others to feel good too and spread it out! Mark Wahlberg did that when he heard about one story he could not walk away from because he knew others needed to hear it~

'Not your typical faith-based film': Wahlberg says 'Father Stu' is honest, truthful and not watered down
MSNBC

Mark Wahlberg Spent ‘Millions and Millions’ of His Own Money to Fund New Film: ‘Betting on Myself’
Varity
Zack Sharf
April 13, 2022

Mark Wahlberg’s new movie “Father Stu” tells the true story of Stuart Long, an amateur boxer who becomes a Catholic priest while suffering from inclusion body myositis. The film is way more than just an acting gig for Wahlberg, who recently told Insider that he spent “millions and millions of dollars” of his own money to partially self-fund “Father Stu” when no other financial backer would take on the project. Wahlberg said he was partly inspired to do so by his co-star Mel Gibson, who spent around $30 million of his own money to help finance “The Passion of the Christ.”

“Well, I’m always willing to bet on myself,” Wahlberg said about partly self-funding “Father Stu.” “I slipped the script to a couple of people that I thought maybe would get it, and they didn’t. And obviously, it’s subjective. You have your own feeling of what the material is. Some people thought it was depressing because he’s sick at the end. They didn’t see the heart and the emotion and, ultimately, how inspiring it is.”
read more here

In The Arms of Stranger Angels

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 13, 2022

(About the book Stranger Angels)

Chris survived domestic violence. He had a wonderful childhood but it was what his wife did to him that nearly destroyed him. He was wounded while reporting on the war in Afghanistan. When he returned home, she hated the fact he was home, instead of trying to help him heal. She tried to kill him. Having failed at that, she stalked him.

Mandy, the woman who began to heal Chris, survived child abuse and an abusive husband. He tried to kill her but failed. 

Alex and Mary, brother and sister, survived child abuse.

All of them, along with many others in Stranger Angels, not only survived child abuse, they healed. The healing did not stop with them. They passed on hope to all others that they could not just live a happier life but could become part of a miracle for others to hope for.

All of them had PTSD because of what other people who were supposed to love them did to them. All of them were healing. Some healed completely. Others, like Chris were still healing their wounds.

They knew what it was like to feel hopeless. They knew what it was like to feel as if God allowed it all to happen and to lose faith in His love. They also knew what it was like to have their faith restored and have their broken hearts mended. They were no longer God's lost children searching for hope. 

It is because of this, that Chris set out to write his third book to offer hope to survivors of domestic violence. He traveled to talk to his friends to gain a better understanding of what it was like for children when their own parents inflicted the most damage to them. All of them were examples of what is possible for others to have in their futures and be empowered to dream of the day when they would also become healed.

I know what it is like too. My Dad was a violent alcoholic until I was 13. He recovered with help of people from AA. He ended up helping others. My ex-husband tried to kill me and then stalked me. So, yes, I know what it is like. I survived many other things, but it was the damage he did to me that did not go away until I found out he died. Even with the suffering I went through, I managed to get married again, had a daughter and lived a pretty good life. I had help along the way. The thing that helped heal me more was my faith in God and helping others find what I found. That no matter how lonely, hopeless or lost we feel, He sends someone into our life to let us know He hears our prayers and feels our tears. Helping others was healing for me too!

Some think these books are sad but that is only part of their stories. There is great sadness and struggles. Just like there is great sadness and struggles for anyone trying to heal after surviving any of the causes of PTSD. Just like others, there is also hope when people understand what PTSD is, what caused it and what you can do to #takebackyourlife from #PTSD. Having someone who knows what your life is like helps you #breakthesilence and break the power PTSD has had over your life.

I hope you find comfort and a better understanding of what it is like to be in the arms of Stranger Angels.