Nancy Alcorn - Live Original

You Were Created For More

by Nancy Alcorn | Mar 19, 2020 | Sisterhood, Testimonies

Note from Sadie: I am so excited to invite Nancy Alcorn, Founder of Mercy Multiplied, to share about the impact that their free residential program is having on women who are struggling with suicide, depression, sexual abuse, eating disorders, anxiety and more. God is using this ministry in incredible ways and I feel so honored to support them.

*THIS WEEK ONLY* we are partnering with Mercy to donate 500 ‘LIVE’ books to the women that walk through the doors at Mercy. My team and I have already donated and we would love for you to join us. Will you consider being a part of changing a women’s life today?

Click the image below to donate a book now and enjoy today’s post 🙂

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You were created for more.

I want you to understand this because suicide has become an epidemic in our society. Too many people are believing the lies that no one cares about them or that their life is no longer worth living. Chances are, many of you reading this blog know someone who chose to end their life. Maybe you have considered taking your own life. I am here to tell you there is hope and that God created you on purpose for His purpose and He has a great plan for your life!

When people who have been hurt hear that God has a plan for their lives, they often say, “If God’s plan looks like what I’ve experienced, I don’t want anything to do with Him.” I want to be clear with you, though: There are two plans for your life. God has a plan for you, and the enemy has a plan for you. And they couldn’t be more opposed to one another.

As the Founder and President of Mercy Multiplied, a free Christian residential program for young women ages 13-32, I have seen thousands of young women walk through our doors feeling hopeless and worthless.

These young women tried for years to “fix” themselves by changing their behaviors. Behavior modification does not bring healing and freedom and transformation from the inside out. Only Jesus can do that! We have to get to the root of our issues if we really want to live free and stay free! But you have to take the brave first step and ask for help. Jesus did not die for you and me so we could live in bondage. He died so we could walk in freedom and thrive!

Breanne is a 2013 Mercy graduate who was in Bible college when she made the choice to get help. She had struggled for many, many years before making that decision. But because she reached out for help, she is now living a full life.

I grew up in a Christian home with great parents and three younger brothers. I was a pretty carefree, happy-go-lucky kid and loved making people laugh. However, when I was 12 years old, my parents moved us to a new community for my dad’s new job. It was hard for me to make friends. I was hit so hard with depression and anxiety to the point where I could barely leave my parents’ side in public, even at church. My friendships became smaller and smaller and I started isolating myself and turning more inward.

As the depression set in, I started having dark thoughts like, ‘I am untouchable and unlovable. Would it even matter if I wasn’t around? Would anyone notice if I were gone?’ These thoughts escalated to, ‘You need to be punished for the way you are. You’re a horrible kid. You have a good family, you know God, and everything has been provided for you, so why are you struggling like this?’

I started believing these lies and started thinking about myself as ‘worthless’ and ‘garbage.’ I was physically unhealthy, friendless, and falling hopelessly behind in schoolwork. I decided I needed to be punished, so I began to self-harm.

When I was 15, we had new youth pastors join our church. They reached out to me and made me feel welcome in the youth group. I started to enjoy church again for the first time in years. But the darkness and loneliness at home increased, and I began considering suicide more seriously.

I graduated from high school and looked for a fresh start in Bible college. I knew if I could leave town, I would leave my issues behind and everything would be fine. I could finally move forward. For a while, it worked. I started gaining confidence and making friends, but I felt like a fraud because I didn’t feel like I had a relationship with the Lord. Isolation returned my sophomore year and I became depressed again.

I felt worthless and would compare myself to everyone. I thought to myself, ‘Nothing’s different. I still feel left out, hopeless. I brought all my problems here with me.’ The worse I felt, the more I refused to go out with my friends. I began to self-harm again and this time I ended up in the hospital twice during the fall semester of my junior year. I almost couldn’t bear the thought of my peers at school finding out. ‘You’re at a Bible college!’ I told myself. ‘You’re a Christian. You’re not supposed to struggle with suicide. What do you have to be depressed about?’

A peer at school told me about Mercy and I remember looking at her and saying, ‘that is a place for girls who are dying, that is not for me.’ And she looked at me and said, “Breanne, you are dying.” She had such seriousness on her face that it really hit me that I needed to get help.

I remember driving up the driveway at Mercy with my friend who came with me. I looked at her and said, ‘please don’t make me go in.’ I knew I needed to be there, but it was still so hard, especially making the decision to leave college.

When Breanne came to Mercy in 2013, God started bringing light to the darkness and showing her the lies that she was believing. He started replacing those lies with the truth that she was worthy of love, that her life was worth living. She was able to work through the pain of her past and allow God to bring a deep level of healing into her life. As she allowed herself to actually feel pain, the door opened for her to start feeling all emotions again – including joy and peace. As Breanne was able to truly feel again and no longer believed that she was “garbage” and needed to be punished, she wasn’t compelled to self-harm anymore. When her roots were exposed and uprooted, the life-controlling behavior no longer had a place to grow.

Another important part of Breanne’s journey was in learning how to forgive herself for her past choices. The enemy, who is also known as the accuser, had heaped so much shame and condemnation on her. Some of us may be able to accept and believe the fact that God has forgiven us, but like Breanne, we have a hard time forgiving ourselves. We may feel as if we are more in control and even experience a sense of safety by remaining angry with ourselves, but that control is deceptive. We must learn to fully receive God’s grace but also to extend that grace to ourselves.

When Breanne started to understand the truth of God’s good heart towards her and His good plans for her life, she was able to trust Him again. She learned that God is perfect in love and had only done good to her. It was never His desire for her to be hurt and rejected.

Breanne’s life was not only completely transformed, but she graduated from Mercy, she went back to Bible college, took summer classes and was able to graduate with her class. Today, Breanne works for a child and adolescent psychiatric residential treatment facility. Children ages 6 to 18 spend several months to a year on the locked and secure campus, each struggling with some kind of disruptive or life-controlling behavior. Breanne conducts individual, group, and family therapy sessions and gets to live life six days a week with the residents. The problems they bring — suicidal thoughts, self-harm, aggressive behavior — are not for the faint of heart, she says, but Mercy so impacted her with its example of effective residential care that Breanne wants to multiply the result from her own life into the lives of many others. She is living the full life God created her to live!

I want you to know that, through the power of Christ, you can overcome whatever issues or hurts you may be struggling with. You do not have to live your life under a list of labels or diagnoses. You do not have to stay in bondage to all of the things you have experienced, in fact, those are the very things that God will restore and use to be part of your testimony of freedom. Don’t waste another minute of your life living in bondage, thinking this is the way life is always going to be. There is no such thing as a life that cannot be transformed when someone allows God to work in their heart and life. He loves you and created you to do so much more than just survive, He created you to thrive!

You can watch Breanne’s testimony here.

If you are struggling or know someone who may need help, please visit www.MercyMultiplied.com for more information and resources.

Nancy Alcorn is the Founder & President of Mercy Multiplied, a Christian non-profit that offers free residential counseling for young women ages 13-32 and Outreach services that equip people to live free in Jesus Christ.

Stay Connected With Nancy Alcorn:
Twitter //www.twitter.com/nancyalcorn
Instagram //www.instagram.com/nancyalcorn

Stay Connected With Mercy Multiplied:
www.mercymultiplied.com
Facebook // www.Facebook.com/MercyMultiplied
Instagram // www.Instagram.com/MercyMultiplied
Twitter // www.Twitter.com/MercyMultiplied

Break Free

by Nancy Alcorn | Mar 1, 2019 | Featured, Sisterhood, Testimonies

The first person I ever knew who had an eating disorder was me.

It was back when I was a teenager, and I spent five years stumbling in the dark in the worst bondage I’ve ever experienced my entire life. Back then, no one talked about eating disorders. It wasn’t on anyone’s radar, so I was left to believe that I was the only one struggling with whatever this was. I made it my highest priority to hide this thing from everyone who knew me. There was so much shame, control, and fear attached to the struggle.

I had done everything that I knew to do, short of telling anyone about it. One New Year’s Eve, my friends asked me to go out with them to a Christian concert and ring in the New Year, but I made the decision to stay home by myself that night. I told God that I refused to go into the new year with this issue. I got down on my knees and cried out to Him in desperation, “I hate this! I need You to set me free from whatever this is!! I can’t live in this prison anymore!! I CAN’T HELP MYSELF. I need You to help me! I give my whole life to You, and I choose to surrender control.”

That night God met me where I was, and that moment was the beginning of the end of five years of bondage. Since that time, I’ve been able to share with thousands of young women, not only my own testimony, but to affirm them for having the courage to reach out for help, to see them completely set free.

Today, eating disorders are devastating millions of lives across the world. There are many who are wanting a way out. Since 1983, I have watched countless young women come into the doors of Mercy Multiplied who have sought prior treatment without successful long-term results, yet they have graduated from the Mercy program completely transformed. Whether you are struggling with an eating disorder yourself, or you have a friend who is struggling, please believe me when I say there is hope and freedom available through Jesus Christ!

Most eating disorders stem from deep emotional, psychological, and spiritual roots. When we have external issues we’re struggling with, like an eating disorder, we often think those issues are the problem. The truth is that those issues are just an outward expression of a much deeper problem. The unhealthy “roots” in our lives are the source of the behaviors that we want to see change.

Our roots draw their power from the different things we’ve walked through in our lives that have affected us. And it’s not until we expose and deal with those roots – things like rejection, fear, and shame, that we will experience true and lasting freedom. Whatever the root of an eating disorder may be, the solution is more than to simply eat balanced meals and keep the food down. Trust me, I tried that.

One very common root of eating disorders is the desperate need to feel in control. Something may have happened – such as trauma or sexual abuse – that made you feel out of control. An eating disorder can make you feel that you are in control, but just the opposite is true. You are actually giving control of your life to something else. The Bible says that we are slaves to whatever controls us. The way to walk in freedom is to choose, like I did all those years ago, to surrender control of your life to God instead of trying to control your life yourself. After all, Jesus came to heal broken lives and set captives free!

Whether someone is dealing with anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating, freedom is available! I have seen hundreds of young women over the years who have spent thousands and thousands of dollars entering treatment programs only to leave the same or even worse. Totally reminds me of the woman in the Bible who had a flow of blood for 12 years (Mark 5:25-26). It says she went to many doctors and spent all she had but instead of getting better she only got worse.

Such was the case with a 20-year-old girl named Kristin who walked through the door of one of our Mercy homes in 2003. Turns out her parents were wealthy, and they had spent massive amounts of money on the best eating disorder treatment programs in America. The doctors finally sat her parents down to say they had done all they could do, and that Kristin would always have the eating disorder, that she would probably always be in and out of hospitals and never be able to live a normal life. The doctors said Kristin had destroyed her body to the point that she would never be able to have children.

As often is the case, a young woman who had previously graduated from Mercy and was healed and restored from an eating disorder suggested they contact us for help. Completely out of any other options, Kristin applied to Mercy as a last-ditch attempt to get the help she so desperately longed for.

She entered the program in 2003 and was with us approximately six months. During this time, Mercy provided a safe place for Kristin to open up about traumatic things that had happened to her in her childhood. Our counselors at Mercy also helped Kristin see that the labels that had been spoken over her life and the things that the doctors told her about never being able to live a normal life were just not true.

Through our wonderful staff and counselors, Kristin was able to understand that it was possible for us to help her get to the root issues of why she had an eating disorder in the first place and through that process she could be healed and restored. Kristin began to renew her mind to God’s Word which caused her to see herself the way God sees her.

We shared with Kristin what God says in Deuteronomy 30:19, that He actually gives us a ability to choose between life and death, blessing and cursing. Through that Scripture, Kristin realized that she had the power to choose life. She also realized that she was empowered to replace lies with truth and to identify with being a child of God rather than a damaged young girl with a severe eating disorder. That is when everything changed.

The day she graduated from Mercy, her parents and family came to celebrate and what a wonderful day it was!!!

After Kristin’s graduation from Mercy, she returned to Texas to live with her family and immediately became involved with a local church. It was there that she met a young man named Ryan. She called to ask that I pray for her because she thought that he might be “the one.”

It was about a year later that Ryan and Kristin got married. It quickly became evident that God, not only set Kristin free from the eating disorder, but He also healed her physical body. Fast forward to the year 2019. Ryan and Kristin are very happily married and have given birth to nine beautiful children. This might be a good time to think back on all the things the eating disorder “experts” told her about her future that proved not to be the truth.

Telling this story is one of the best ways I know to explain to you the difference between treatment and transformation. Kristin was transformed and healed and restored in every way – spirit, soul, and body. She and Ryan are amazing parents. I love to stalk them on Instagram so that I can see all of their beautiful children and get a glimpse into their daily life. We remain in touch and both Ryan and Kristin and Kristin’s parents are supporters of Mercy to this day.

Kristin represents hundreds and hundreds of young women who have moved from the bondage of an eating disorder into a place of total healing and freedom. If you are struggling with an eating disorder or know someone who may need help, please visit www.MercyMultiplied.com for additional resources.

Nancy Alcorn is the Founder & President of Mercy Multiplied, a Christian non-profit that equips all people to live free and stay in Jesus Christ through its free-of-charge residential program for young women ages 13-32 and its Outreach services.

Her new book, Treatment or Transformation: 13 Real Stories Why You Can’t Argue With A Changed Life tells 13 powerful stories where God intervened and radically transformed lives and is available at MercyMultiplied.com.

Stay Connected With Nancy Alcorn:
Twitter //www.twitter.com/nancyalcorn
Instagram //www.instagram.com/nancyalcorn