My name is Stephanie Tucker. I’m very grateful that you are on this journey, and pray that it will be a tool to help you leave the lifestyle of survival, and trade it in for the value and surpassing greatness of God’s significance! I want to share a little about my own journey and what brought me to forming this ministry.
I attended my first codependency meeting over twenty years ago. It was sheer pain that brought me there. As I walked into that door and looked around the room, I thought “I don’t want to be like them.” There had to be a way out. If I could just leave the bad relationship, then I wouldn’t have deal with the inner pain and emptiness of feeling out of control and unlovable. I left that meeting listening to words that I couldn’t understand. The level of brokenness and pain that drove me there would escalate into many more years of unanswered questions and unfixed problems. Like being stuck in a pit and clawing my way to the top through my own self-sufficiency, I would make it only so far, then drop back down. Each fall would bring deeper levels of despair.
When I look back, the broken pain I felt was far harder to face and understand because it revolved around the things in me I couldn’t see or comprehend. Was I crazy? Was I hopeless? Was there just something about me that was fundamentally wrong, and no one or nothing could change it?
My sense of spirituality was desperately faulty. Even though I grew up in the church, I honestly didn’t know God as personal or engaged with me. Instead He had been a “stage show” of some sort in my own mind that I had limited within the walls of the church. None of what I learned seemed real. It was after one particular “fall” that I began to search God out. I wanted to know if it was possible to know Him personally. I wanted to know if His promises were real. After realizing that I hadn’t ever instigated a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I threw myself back into Christianity and church, and became fully dedicated to living a life onto the Lord. I worked so hard in service and devotion to Him, that I was totally devastated to discover that so much of the inward issues that plagued me were not leaving. The perplexing reality of what I call codependence today was that I brought this toxic form of relationship styles right with me into Christianity. Despite the amazing grace I had experienced, there were huge areas of my heart that remained in need of transformation.
In God’s divine timing, I received the gift of a lifetime – a full encounter with my Lord and God. I can’t tell you how I arrived there exactly, but in sheer brokenness I cried and cried out to God to reveal Himself and to not allow me to limit Him anymore. Instead of argue and fight against Him, focusing on what I saw in and around me, I began to call out God on the basis of what HE declared Himself to be. Through that transaction, and many more to come, I was not only able to come into the presence of God, but I was able to let my Jesus (through the work of the Holy Spirit) access the root levels of my damage and pain. HE LOVED ME! True love–God’s love– is the most potent force on earth and the true cure of all forms of codependency. But I also needed my mind to be renewed. I needed the toxic lies about God, myself and others replaced with the truth of who God declared Himself to be, and the purposes for which I was created to live. This wasn’t an emotional experience that only lasted a few days. I experienced a gradual and supernatural overtaking of the Spirit of God into all cavities and avenues of my mind, my heart and my soul. And through the process of accessing the lies and replacing them with truth, I was set free.
Despite any professional experience I may have gained, I will never give anything or anyone else credit other than the power of transformational grace found through Jesus Christ. I know today, that no matter what breeches and difficulties may surround me, my God is enough for me.
My only job in offering resources is to give people tools that can lead them on their own journey through the heart of God, where they can see themselves accurately through His perspective. If you do not yet know Jesus, I urge you to take some time to learn about Him and invite Him into the process of healing. He is the Giver of truth, thus without Him, there is no ability to be brought into freedom. If you do know Jesus but can’t seem to find the deep level of freedom, peace and wholeness you desire, then I encourage you to go on the truth-finding journey. I know it takes courage – but the results will be worth it.
There are many wonderful resources of codependency written. Seek out any and all options that you see fit. But the best resource I can offer you is the same gift I received, and one I’ve been blessed and honored to witness in the lives of hundreds of others. This gift is packaged in a journey of truth-finding that is based on who God is, what He says He can do, and who we are in Him.
“so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God” – 1 Corinthians 2:5
It is my wonderful delight to have you join alongside this journey! If I can encourage you, please feel free to contact me at stephanie@spiritofliferecovery.com
love your story in Him, and the work you’re doing in Him!
Dear Stephanie,
Reading your story is such an inspiration to me! I feel a connection that someone finally understands what I’m going through, and through reading the workbook I feel validated as I read in text the exact feelings I’ve been experiencing! Yes! Someone finally gets it! Explaining the dynamics at work , I begin to understand how it has shaped my life, and as I reflect I find more & more specific instancess coming to light. Though I understand how my faulty thought process came about, I must also try to understand with compassion that the other loved ones in my life who played a part in my codependent ways, were also unknowing victims of the generation before them and had their own unresolved issues. Such a sad thought. I love them just the same because I realize that although they had the best of intentions, they could only love me with what they knew at the time. I carry a sadness and a hurt in my heart for them that they did not come to reallize the full power & truth of God’s everlasting love for them! The next step in my recovery is to grieve the things I wish had been different growing up, but to quickly move over to forgiveness. I now base my thoughts on the truths of God’s love for me! I am a child of God, a daughter of the King, made in His image ! I am beginning to feel set free to be spontaneous, authentic, and full of God’s love for others! I will know longer doubt my abilities or hold my emotions inside. I was fearfully and wonderfully
Made, and created for His purpose…and the truth has indeed set me free! Amen!
“So do not fear for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Isaiah 41:10 NIV
After reading this I feel like we are friends. Thank you for your story and for sharing it. I pray God would use you (Spirit through you) to transform my life.
Hey Laura! So glad you could join us today! I’m praying for you – and we are sisters in Jesus!