Sharon Howard - Lord of Our Emotions: From Redheaded Stepchild to My Happy Place in God

Lord of Our Emotions is a book that not only engages your emotions, but engages your faith also. In this story you will find the grace, mercy, and restoring power of God. We live in an age where we hear so much about abuse and the tragedy of it. Very few times do we hear about the ability of God to restore and renew. This book will do that and more.

Dr. Randy Valimont, Senior Pastor

Griffin First Assembly an Encounter Life Church

Sharon has written a touching, vulnerable story of her journey from a life of darkness into the light of Jesus Christ. Along with personal details and transparent struggles of utter brokenness, she includes helpful scriptures as well as techniques to help others who have shared similar emotional battles. The reader feels the joy of her redemption and the peace she achieves as she walks with the Lord and learns to integrate His new mercies into her daily life. Her story gives hope to those who share similar pain and who may need a picture of Gods grace. Most importantly, Sharon gives God all the glory as she effectively demonstrates His work of refining and restoration, His immeasurable love, and His abundant mercies.

Susan L. Mayo, Ph.D. Licensed Psychologist

In Lord of Our Emotions: From Redheaded Stepchild to My Happy Place in God, Sharon Howard shares the poignant story of her journey from unloved stepchild to much-loved daughter of the King. With her fresh, honest voice, Howard tells how she overcame both personal and family challenges through a growing faith that continues to bear fruit today. Anyone who has ever experienced disappointment and setbacks will be encouraged by this thoroughly uplifting read.

Angela McRae, Award-Winning Editor, Author, and Blogger

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Dedicated to Jesus Christ, my savior, for His unending grace and mercy.

Words cannot express my appreciation to Michael Howard, my wonderful, supportive husband, who provides me with unconditional love and without whom I could not have completed this project.

Thank you to husband-and-wife authors, Alex and Angela McRae, who gave generously of their time to encourage and teach others how to become authors.

Thank you to LTC R. (Bob) W.P. Patterson, a true American hero and author of over thirty books. He and his wife, Arlene, were instrumental in igniting the desire and belief that I could successfully publish a book.

LORD OF OUR EMOTIONS:

FROM REDHEADED STEPCHILD

TO MY HAPPY PLACE IN GOD

My story of overcoming abuse and family mental illness to find peace and happiness through gods grace and mercyso you can too

Sharon Harrington Howard

Copyright 2018 by Sharon Harrington Howard

Published in the United States of America

Written by Sharon Harrington Howard

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means electronic, mechanical, photographic (photocopying), recording or otherwise without prior permission in writing from the author.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is taken from the New American Standard Bible Reference Edition Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, by THE LOCKMAN FOUNDATION. Used by permission. www.lockman.org

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from The Holy Bible Authorized King James Version World Bible Publishers Iowa Falls, Iowa

Cover: https://www.fiverr.com/pro_ebookcovers

Editor: Angela McRae

ISBN-13: 978-1-7327350-0-2 (Paperback edition)

ISBN-13: 978-1-7327350-1-9 (E-book edition)

Table of Contents

Mom laughed as she said, Do you feel like youre treated like a redheaded stepchild? She found this funny and said it often as I was growing up. I was a little girl with red hair who had a stepfather from the time I was five, so I was actually a redheaded stepchild. My own biological father wondered if I was his child when he saw me for the first time. After all, Mother, Father, and my older brother all had dark brown hair. I felt unwanted even in my own family. The term treated like a redheaded stepchild summed up my pain. But it was no laughing matter because it represented years of suffering.

Lets explore the origin of the phrase treated like a redheaded stepchild. The term appears in American writing as far back as 1910. A red-haired child born to a family of different coloring immediately raised questions about the morality of its mother, and stepchild here may indeed have been a euphemism for bastard. A true stepchild in a family frequently suffered physical abuse from the children and parent to whom it was unrelated. Some writers have suggested such abuse was specifically the result of anti-Irish feelings in the United States, since it was believed that most Irish men and women had red hair.

Here are other ideas: With red hair being rare, a child born to non-redheaded parents was often assumed to be the child of an affair. Thus, the child was treated badly, usually in the form of beatings. A stepchild might be singled out for abuse. But a redheaded stepchild, who presumably looks like his or her absent birth parent, might be abused even more because he or she is so obviously different from the other children.

See why I didnt find that statement funny? I still can hardly believe Mom laughed while saying it. She didnt seem to care that it hurt my feelings.

I felt like the unwanted freak who didnt even have a right to exist. I also heard Mom jokingly say to others, People often ask what color the milkmans or postmans hair was, ha-ha. I dont believe Mom was unfaithful because both she and my father are of Irish and English descent, but it certainly hurt to hear these things.

My earthly stepfather might have never adopted me, but Im now the daughter of the most-high king and have been grafted into the family of the one who matters the mostthe family of God!

Rom. 8:14 (King James Version) For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons [daughters] of God.

Rom. 8:17a (KJV) And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.

Maybe youve felt unloved or that you dont fit in. This book is the story of how I accepted Jesus as my savior and how Gods Holy Spirit allowed me to overcome depression, anxiety, lack of self-confidence, self-loathing, and feeling like a redheaded stepchild. I was able to find true joy in knowing that Im the daughter of the King (aka princess) and now rest in my happy place in God. Jesus showed me that I am victorious. By Gods grace, I have entered the place that the Bible describes as peace that passes all understanding in order to reach mental and spiritual rest. My prayer is that this book will inspire you to lean on God, seek available resources, and rise above any and all negative circumstances in which you find yourself. With Gods help, Ive achieved true forgiveness, and I rest in the assurance that Gods Holy Spirit resides in me and uses me in ministry. You can experience this forgiveness and assurance too.

I can honestly say now that I forgive all the adults in my life who should have protected me but instead abused or neglected me, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

Rom. 3:23(KJV) For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

Rom. 8:28 (KJV) And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God , to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Matt. 6:14 (KJV)For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

How precious it is that God fills us with His Holy Spirit if we ask. This allows us to endure all things and the ability to forgive all things.

Eph. 4:32 (KJV) And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,