This can be dangerous though.  If we don't allow medical attention to be given when there is a physical hurt, the wound may not heal properly.  This happened to my great grandmother.  She was involved in a terrible car accident that took the life of her husband, and left her in a coma for many months.  It was not expected that she would live, so the medical team didn't take the time to set her broken bones.  As result of this, her bones in her arms and legs were never straight.  She was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life with crooked arms and legs.  

The Lord reminded me of an incident that occurred when I was around 10 or 11.  My class had gone to the library before socialization time, and I was not finished up checking out my book before my class headed to meet the other classes under the oak tree for our weekly time of hanging out and talking with all of the other classes in our grade level.  Being the extrovert that I am, and was suffering some serious FOMO, so I had to catch up with my class as quickly as possible.  I checked out my book and sprinted out the back door of the library and across the parking lot to the oak tree on the other side of the school campus.  Now, I am sure every parent is reading this shaking their head, maybe even shuddering as I am running as fast as I can across the patched pavement that was the parking lot at the back of the school.  About halfway to my destination, I met the large pothole by the dumpster and as you may have guessed.  I tripped, my knee meeting the jagged pavement with full force, my hands sprawling out in front of me as the object in motion attempted to remain in motion, even though it was being met with significant resistance by the pavement.  

Tears poured down my face as I screamed in pain, and embarrassment, too.  My knee had been ripped open by the gravel in the pavement, my hands were no longer smooth skin, but now resembled sandpaper.  You see, it was Friday in south Georgia, and we were allowed to wear shorts on Fridays.  There was no denim to protect my skin.  It was skin to pavement.  I was taken by one of my friends to the office where the nurse called my mom to come get me.  Tears eventually dried up, I caught my breath and my mom was there.  I begged her not to take me to the emergency room, and truth be told we didn't ever really head to the emergency room if it was an injury that mom could handle at home.  I remember crying and begging her not to touch the gapping wound on my knee.  She explained that she had to clean it, or it could get infected.  She promised to be gentle, and my sister, 5 years younger than me promised to hold my hand.  I trusted mom.  I didn't trust my sister or my brother, I didn't even trust my dad.  It was only mom.  She was the only one I trusted enough to keep her word to be gentle.  I knew that my mom would never intentionally hurt me.  I knew my mom had my best interest at heart.  I knew mom was safe.  I remember laying there on the baby blue pleather sofa, squeezing the life out of my sister's hand as my mom washed the wound, removed the remaining gravel and bandaged my knee.  

I still to this day, some 20+ years later have a scar on my knee from that fateful day, but I didn't lose my leg to staph infection or gangrene.  I may have a scar there on my knee that isn't the prettiest, but the wound eventually healed.  There was a scab for a good while during the healing process.  The skin had to grow back layer by layer.  But the fact of the matter is that healing would not have properly taken place had I not allowed my mom to clean the wound, remove the junk, clean the germs and apply ointment to the wound.  This was a process that had to be completed more than once, with the same level of discomfort squeezing my sister's hand.  This was necessary though, so that healing could take place.  If the gravel would have remained there, healing couldn't happen properly.  My body would have worked to expel the foreign bodies.  Infection may have set in, causing all sorts of other problems.  

So what do we do to change this?  How can we allow healing to happen?  The first step is to take the hurt to God in prayer.  Just like I had to tell my mom that I got hurt, and allow her to doctor the wound.  We have to allow God to step into the areas of hurt.  God is a gentleman, and even though He knows all of the things about us, He knows all of the details of what they did to us, He wants desperately for us to allow Him to come in and minister to us, to doctor those wounds and to allow healing to take place.  He will not force himself into our lives, or into any area of our lives that we do not give Him permission to enter.  

The second step is to forgive.  I know that can just about be a cuss word when it comes to dealing with deep hurts.  I was there.  Please go watch the video of my story on the homepage.  I was not happy at all when God told me I had to forgive my abuser.  You see, I have come to realize that harboring unforgiveness is like eating rat poison, hoping that it will kill the other person.  When we hold on to the unforgiveness, we are the ones making ourselves sick, and most of the time the other person is walking through life oblivious that that they hurt us.  They are sleeping in peace and don't have a touch of indigestion.  Meanwhile we are over here holding on to what they did to us and haven't slept in weeks and can't get rid of the fiery gusts of heartburn bubbling up after every meal.  This is often where we get bogged down for the longest, insisting on our right to be offended at what they did.  While we have a right to be hurt by their actions, we also have the right to trust them to the Lord and let it go.  This was the key to stepping into my healing.  This was the catalyst to finding freedom from torment by the devil.  

The last step in the process is to get in the Word and see what God has said about you and this issue in the Bible.  Meditate on how God thinks about you.  Meditate on the character of God.  Ponder His goodness.  Pray that God show you these things in the Word. I promise you He will! This is where freedom happens.  As you look into the mirror of the Word of God you will find that He makes a message out of the mess.  He gives you joy for mourning and He brings freedom to the captive.  

Take time today to candidly talk to God about the hurt you have experienced.  Talk to him as if He were sitting in a chair across from you.  Tell Him how much it hurt, tell Him that you don't want to carry the pain any longer.  Ask Him to show you His love for you and for the other person(s).  Ask Him to heal the pain and to show you how He feels about you in His Word.  Ask Him to renew your mind according to His word and to help you to stop the negative and hurtful thoughts that have rolled through you mind since the wound happened.