It is great to have this opportunity to share a brief overview of my life journey with you. I pray it will encourage you while on your healing journey and provide a renewed understanding that we serve a God of the impossible!
I will share a brief synopsis of my early childhood which became my launchpad into a life of personal struggles, heartache and considerable soul shattering resulting in a dysfunctional lifestyle, at best.
I was the youngest of four siblings. Both parents were alcoholics. Fear, insecurity, inferiority, stress stuttering, a physical deformity, and short-term memory loss due to significant learning disabilities; were my constant companions as a child and for much of my life. I way bullied, made very poor grades, and often I was laughed at whenever I was made to recite in front of the classroom.
By the time I reached the 10th grade, I remember going to the guidance counselor's office for a review of my recent three years aptitude tests. I never did well on tests for obvious reasons. She sat before me between stacks of files and her half-eaten lunch sandwich.
I recall to this day the picture of her looking over her glasses and asking me, "Larry, do you plan to go to college?" I immediately responded, "Oh no, I just want to get out of school and work!" Her reply is deeply etched within my soul, "That is good Larry because, after looking over your test results and all the previous ones, you simply do not have what it takes to go to college.
I suggest you get a job and just take whatever life can give you!" I remember shuffling out of the office while holding back the tears and the rush of self-loathing pain over how stupid I must be.
I recall to this day the picture of her looking over her glasses and asking me, "Larry, do you plan to go to college?" I immediately responded, "Oh no, I just want to get out of school and work!" Her reply is deeply etched within my soul, "That is good Larry because, after looking over your test results and all the previous ones, you simply do not have what it takes to go to college.
I suggest you get a job and just take whatever life can give you!" I remember shuffling out of the office while holding back the tears and the rush of self-loathing pain over how stupid I must be.
Therefore, I withdrew more into myself and unknowingly began building my own internal world into which I withdrew deeper and deeper. I became consumed with self-hate. These were the ingredients that designed my early life, its relationship failures, its parenting failures and escalating self-sabotage which spewed forth into, not only my life, but into every life I touched.
Do I understand pain, self-hate, rejection, hopelessness, despair, and failure? Absolutely! However, God has a plan for my life, as He does for your life, and he continued to reach inside and release His love and healing despite my utter disastrous lifestyle.
My prayer for my remaining years is that God might use me to be of some service to His kingdom plan by helping to "set the captives free." (In summary, Dr. Stanfield writes with decades of experience as a researcher, crisis counselor, pastor, educator, and biblical psychologist. As the past founder of specialized schools and a global trauma center, he weaves years of teaching, training, ministry, and personal healing into each of his books with a passion to help others.
Today, he spends much of his time writing, teaching, and he continues to be active in private ministry. Dr. Stanfield and his wife Nancy reside Florida.
Do I understand pain, self-hate, rejection, hopelessness, despair, and failure? Absolutely! However, God has a plan for my life, as He does for your life, and he continued to reach inside and release His love and healing despite my utter disastrous lifestyle.
My prayer for my remaining years is that God might use me to be of some service to His kingdom plan by helping to "set the captives free." (In summary, Dr. Stanfield writes with decades of experience as a researcher, crisis counselor, pastor, educator, and biblical psychologist. As the past founder of specialized schools and a global trauma center, he weaves years of teaching, training, ministry, and personal healing into each of his books with a passion to help others.
Today, he spends much of his time writing, teaching, and he continues to be active in private ministry. Dr. Stanfield and his wife Nancy reside Florida.
