Pray You Through

So at the beginning of April, I quietly changed my Facebook profile picture to a teal ribbon.  But I didn't say anything about it.  I just let people think what they wanted to and left it at that.  The teal ribbon can stand for a lot of different things.

April is sexual assault awareness month.

It's meant to start a conversation about it.  I'm always still surprised about the misconceptions people have about sexual assault and rape.  I've gotten fed up with conversations and simply walked off to go cool off somewhere else.

Let me give you some statistics...

About Victims

• 44% of victims are under age 18
• 80% are under age 30

Sexual Assault Numbers

• Every 2 minutes, someone in the U.S. is sexually assaulted
• There is an average of 207,754 victims (age 12 or older) of sexual assault each year

Reporting to Police

• 54% of sexual assaults are not reported to the police
• 97% of rapists will never spend a day in jail

About Rapists

• Approximately 2/3 of assaults are committed by someone known to the victim
• 38% of rapists are a friend or acquaintance

(from http://www.rainn.org/statistics)

It's not pretty.  And it's not just an issue for women.  Men can be victims too.

I don't have a solution to making it "better."  One of the first times I shared my story, someone asked me what's the best thing to do when someone shares their story with you?

Believe them.

Just believe them.

Don't try to solve it.  You can't.  There are no words to say.  But they're sharing it with you because they trust you and they just want someone to believe them.  And listen.  And just be there.  

Which is so hard.  It's awkward when you feel like you don't know what to say.  But really, they don't expect you to say much of anything.

It seems so simple.  Just believe them?  Honestly though, many people won't believe them.  

In fact, the first and only time I reported, guess what happened?  They didn't believe me.  My integrity was called into question.  My parents did everything they could to fight for me.  But the school didn't care.  I was 13.

So next time something happened to me, did I report it?  Of course not.  When something like that happens you already feel worthless, so what good does it do to go report it when they'll just make you feel even worse?

So...if someone shares with you, just believe them.  And support them.  If they want to report it and press charges, support them.  If they don't want to, support them.

And know that you can't fix it.  They can't fix it either.  Counseling helps a lot.  But really, the only thing that's going to help someone heal is Jesus.

"I'm all out of words
There's nothing I could say to you
To take away the hurt
So let me pray you through"