Three Pronged Attack

Hello Warrior Princess Sisters,

I have been meaning to get this piece posted for a week and finally have time to do it this morning.  This piece was written by Shyla, my good friend and an orginal member of the Warrior Princesses.  She actually wrote this earlier this summer and I've been waiting for the right time to post it.  It seems like now is the time. 

A verse came to mind as I was re-reading it this morning and I'd like to share that now and then copy her story into this post.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.  Galatians 5:1

After you read Shyla's story, you will see why this verse came to mind and how she is choosing to stand firm.  My prayer today is that you will see where the enemy is attacking you, that you will renounce his lies, and stand firm in the freedom of Christ today. 

If you have a victory story to share please email it to me at kishbooks at hotmail dot com (I have to type it out that way to keep spammers from capturing my email, but you know how to type it into your email contacts, right?).  Again, I won't post anything unless I have your permission and I can post your's under a fake name if you like.

Sole Deo Gloria,
WP Stacey


The Enemy’s 3 Prong Attack…He Came to Destroy Me…. God Came to Give Me Life!


I was not only being assaulted by the infidelity of my husband, the sheer rejection and betrayal of that, but I was also being attacked on two fronts of my own existence that had been deeply seeded in my soul. One was my infertility. The other was my body image.

My husband’s mistress was pregnant with his child, something that I had wanted for 13 years. Despite adopting 5 children and having the privilege of parenting many babies and older children whose own mommy’s couldn’t care for them, I was still devastated with the reality that I could not have a baby. I wasn’t a “real” mom because I couldn’t have a baby. I didn’t realize that it remained an issue for me until this other woman was pregnant with my husband’s baby. I was devastated. I reached up and out to my Daddy and asked, “Why would You allow this? Isn’t it bad enough that they are committing adultery? Why would you honor them with the gift of a child? How can You possibly allow this? Why would you give them a child and not me? How many years did I ask You for a child?” This was one area in my life where the enemy assaulted me the hardest. If there was any area in my whole life that he could attack, this would be the second and most painful. His desire is to sift me like wheat. And believe me, I was being sifted.

The second issue was body image. My husband chose a woman who was more fit than me. She was leaner and more muscular than me. She had a nicer body than me. Part of their escapes were at the gym. The gym was MY domain. Even mine and my husband’s. Why does this matter? My life up to this point had been lived believing that if I was fit enough, looked good enough, performed well enough as an athlete, then I was closer to being “good enough.” My acceptance of myself came through my body image and athletic performance through specific expectations I had placed on myself. To be less than my expectations was to be less than good enough. My husband understood this about me and he too placed pressure on me in subtle but evident ways. So to be rejected for someone who was “more” of all that I tried to be was very devastating for me. This is exactly where the enemy launched his third area of assault. Number three most devastating area the enemy could have assaulted me was right here on my body image.

Abundant life…I would need to recognize and receive His help in abolishing some lies that I had been believing for a very long time. Lies that had resulted in bondage for me. For starters, I had always felt like I was less than other women, that I was missing something because I couldn’t birth a child. I had felt as though I was less of a mother than all the women who can and do birth children. The enemy sold me a lie many years back and I bought it! He told me that I was missing something. He told me that I would never be a real mother because I couldn’t produce my own babies. He told me that I wasn’t good enough to birth a child. He told me that there was something wrong with me. Despite seeing many birth mothers who were incapable of parenting, through my experiences as a foster mom, I continued to buy this lie. With time and healing I realized that this was, in fact, a lie. My ability to be a mother has nothing to do with my ability to create a child in my womb. I still struggle with fully accepting this, but God has placed several mothers in my life that have both birthed and adopted children and they serve as mighty consolation for me that I am NOT missing anything. These precious women remind me that there is no difference in their feelings for or their abilities to care for their adopted and birth children. I do believe them. After coming to terms with the treacherous lie about my infertility and ability to be a good mother because of the inability to produce my own children.

To gain control over the lie that I was less than other women because I could not have a baby, I needed to renounce the agreement I had made with the enemy to believe such a lie about myself and my God. I verbally, out loud, in writing, (whatever form I could do at the time) needed to tell the devil that I break my agreement with him to believe this lie any longer. I had to acknowledge that I had bought the devil’s lie, that I thought wrongly of myself due to his lie, and that I thought sinfully of my God as well. I called him the Liar and Deceiver that he is and broke my agreement with him to believe his lie any longer. After that I invited the Lord right in to cover over this newly broken agreement with His reproving light of truth and asked Him to never allow me to go back to that place of believing this lie. Like any bondage we have subjected ourselves to, I have to revisit God’s Truth in this matter on occasion. It can be easy to fall back into old patterns of thinking. Whenever old, untrue thoughts of my inadequacy try to sneak in, I journal through them and call them what they are, big fat lies.

The same process has had to take place in regards to my false perceptions about my worth and body image. I was assaulted very hard in this place because it was a stronghold that painfully and thoroughly needed to be removed. I am thankful to God that He loved and regarded me so much as to allow such deep, precise pain in my life at that time. It was the kind of pruning that was necessary to get to the root of the issues. Don’t get me wrong, both the infertility and the body image issues have taken years to sort through and I am not complete yet. Far more free, but not complete. The enemy is a snake and he tries every way to usurp my rest and peace in what I know to be true about myself and how my God views me. In great goodness to me, God allowed a triple blow in my life, all at the same time, adultery (betrayal/rejection), infertility, and my body image. All three of these things challenged my worth as a woman. Looking back, in the beginning I was pleading with God to know why He would allow all three of these things to happen at once, in the dynamic of one horrific circumstance. I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that He did this because He loves me and desired me to be set free. I am so very thankful for Him choosing to burn away my bondage in one massive swoop. He knew what I needed more than I myself would ever know. I am so grateful!

WP Shyla