Mary Beth Woll - Growing Stronger: 12 Guidelines Designed to Turn Your Darkest Hour into Your Greatest Victory

Press on in your encouraging, victorious book. Your story will be a great encouragement to multitudes. Yes, your battles youve fought through have made you strong and have given you great motivation and knowledge for your mission as Counselor.

Rita Bennett, Marriage & Family Therapist, Litt.D., author of: You Can Be Emotionally Free, EmotionallyFree.org.

I used to believe that isolation was a good thing; it took a team of highly-skilled therapists at the Meier Clinic and a loving community of believers to convince me that connection with other safe, mature Christians promotes healing. Im grateful that Mary Beth Woll and Dr. Paul Meier have written so clearly and powerfully! This book has reinforced key principles that encourage me to connect with Jesus to receive life, connect with others to pursue freedom, and pass on what Ive learned to impact others.

Meier Clinic client.

12 Guidelines
Designed to Turn
Your Darkest Hour
into Your
Greatest Victory

MARY BETH WOLL, MA, LMHC
AND PAUL MEIER, MD

New York

growing STRONGER

12 Guidelines Designed to Turn
Your Darkest Hour into Your Greatest Victory

2015 MARY BETH WOLL, MA, LMHC AND PAUL MEIER, MD .

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in New York, New York, by Morgan James Publishing. Morgan James and The Entrepreneurial Publisher are trademarks of Morgan James, LLC. www.MorganJamesPublishing.com

The Morgan James Speakers Group can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event visit The Morgan James Speakers Group at www.TheMorganJamesSpeakersGroup.com.

ISBN 978-1-63047-510-9 paperback
ISBN 978-1-63047-511-6 eBook
Library of Congress Control Number:
2014921129

Cover Design by:
Rachel Lopez
www.r2cdesign.com

Interior Design by:
Bonnie Bushman
bonnie@caboodlegraphics.com

In an effort to support local communities and raise awareness and funds, Morgan James Publishing donates a percentage of all book sales for the life of each book to Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg.

DEDICATION

To Mary Beths husband, Bob Woll, the best possible support when I was in crisis, and to our children, David, Bethany, Christa and Stevie, who, with Gods help, also endured and grew strong in spite of or because of the trauma.

To Mom and Dad, Rev. John and Lola Baker, who trained me and my siblings, (John, Sue, and Joanna) for this race and gave me a wonderful, solid footing because of which I was able to rebound from trauma.

To my dear friend, Carmen Harris, to the incredible Prayer Group (June Munson, Peggy Hurd, Sandy Brannon, Mary Baffaro, Barbara Elder and Sheryl White), to Bible Study buddies Opal Oss and Lucie Buse, to Dr. Rita Bennett, and to Linda James, all of whom loved, taught, and prayed me through the healing process.

Special thanks to Paul Meier, MD, who shared the vision and writing of this book.

Many thanks to Dr. Jodi Detrick, who encouraged me to write the handbook for women in crisis (Hundredfold) from which this book originated. And thanks to Jane Etter and Alicia Adams who urged me to launch the first intensive-care support group (Snohomish Community Church) which has, as of this writing, already multiplied to three groups.

Thanks also to Sherry Esp and Katie Saesan for their proofreading and editing expertise. And thanks to our Growing Stronger Prayer Partners, without whom this book could not have been written.

Gods Word beautifully describes my gratitude for the God-honoring legacy left to me by previous generations of faithful family members, and also challenges me to pass on that legacy to future generations:

I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter hidden things, things from of oldthings we have heard and known, things our ancestors have told us. We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, His power, and the wonders He has done. He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which He commanded our ancestors to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget His deeds but would keep His commands (Psalm 78:27).

I pray that I will run the race God has set before me with all my might as I follow the pace set by my incredible, godly ancestors Rev. John and Lola Baker, Morrison and Gertrude Baker, James and Martha Baker, Vern and Esther Wellman, Rev. George and Lydia Armettie Andrews, and many Baker and Wellman aunts, uncles and cousins. I pray that I will faithfully pass the baton to our children and precious grandchildren: Liam Clay Woll, Oliver Duncan Woll, Rainier Andrew Frank, Lola Pearl Woll, June Flora Porter, and any grandchildren and great grandchildren yet to be born.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

WELCOME TO GROWING STRONGER

The fact that you are reading this book indicates that either you have suffered a crisis or have a heart for helping hurting people. All of us experience times when we are hurting and need help. As a therapist (Mary Beth Woll, MA, LMHC) and a psychiatrist (Paul Meier, MD), we love helping people during those tough times and have devoted our careers to doing so. We love our jobs because it brings such great joy to help others. And that is obviously why you are here right nowlearning to recover or to support others in their recoverythrough Growing Stronger. No doubt you will also find camaraderie in this program with people of like mind and calling.

As the name Growing Stronger suggests, this ministry has a very definite purpose and goalto help women in the church provide healing support for other women experiencing crises so that they can recover and return to a life of effectiveness for God and even become 30, 60, and 100 times more fruitful than before! (Mark 4:20).

The following pages offer a glimpse into the vision the Lord has given me (Mary Beth) as a result of years of counseling ministry and experiences of walking through my own times of crisis, trauma, suffering, and grief.

A number of years ago, I was attacked and nearly killed by a stranger. Even in those most frightening moments of my life, the Holy Spirit filled my heart in a militant, powerful way and comforted me with His presence which more than compensated for the nightmare I experienced.

Through Gods miraculous intervention, I was able to escape. The attacker turned himself in to the police with a full confession and was sentenced to prison. After serving the criminal sentence, he was found by a jury to have a mental abnormality or personality disorder which made him highly likely to reoffend. He was civilly committed, indefinitely, as a sexually violent predator.

During the lengthy and agonizing process of recovering from the attack, I was reading through my prayer journal. I discovered an entry with a Scripture that God had impressed upon my heart just eleven days before the attack. Fear will not come near you. Terror will be far from you. If anyone does attack you, it will not be My doing. Whoever attacks you will surrender to you (Isaiah 54:1415). At the time, I had thought in terms of a spiritual attack. Little did I know that God would deliver me from a physical attack and the assailant would surrender to me, just as the Scripture had said.