“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9 (NIV)
I asked my “Beautiful Li’l Mama,” who is a respected elder, “What is something that you would like to tell our people?” She paused and
gathered her thoughts, and this is what she shared with me: “I want our people to know that all those awful things that happened to us in residential schools were done by people who claimed to represent God, but they weren’t. God didn’t do those things to us—it was people.”
I see so many of our people blaming God. I used to be like that, blaming God for all the bad things that happened. But then His love and forgiveness flooded my heart and mind. I am so free now. My Mama also told me about something she’d dreamed. In her dream, she
was a little girl trapped in the residential school where she grew up. There was a glass wall that she couldn’t climb over or get through.
Then God took her hand and brought her over the glass wall and set her on the other side. From there, she ran away from the residential school towards the road.
Mama takes that dream to mean that God brought her out of that school and not to look back. When someone says to her, “You should
go through counseling,” she simply says, “God brought me out of there. Why would I want to go back there? I am happy. God didn’t put
my eyes in the back of my head to always look back. He put my eyes in front of my head to always look forward.”
Don’t get me wrong. Some of us need counselors to help us deal with what happened to us. God knows what we need. Heavenly Father,
thank You for Your love, forgiveness, and healing. In Jesus Christ’s name. Amen.
– Shannon Menelaws-Laier
Council Fire is a collaboration with Intertribal Life Ministries and Native Evangelical Fellowship of Canada.
The Council Fire Daily Devotional Book Set is available on the Intertribal Life Ministries website.
Learn more about Council Fire at councilfire365.org