Ever have those days when you wake up or even before you ‘fully’ wake up, you kinda just shuffle around in bed HOPING that you can maybe get an extra 5-10 minutes of sleep? You flip your pillow over (to get to the cool side of course). You readjust your blankets. You roll over and over again. Yet, after all this, you can’t get to sleep. Your legs hurt. Your knees are sore. Your eyes don’t want to open. Your head is aching.
And it’s all because you chose to NOT go to sleep at a decent time? That was my morning. I had no one to blame but myself. Believe me, I tried to find SOMEONE to blame, but all fingers pointed at me. So, I just laid in bed. I didn’t bother to get up and make my wife’s coffee. I didn’t make breakfast for the kids. I didn’t do anything of the things I typically do. I was IN the house, but I wasn’t PRESENT.
Today, we’re talking about your FAMILY. So, far we’ve discussed how we can allow our MIND and BODY to become obstacles to experiencing the full expression of God’s presence in our lives…today, it’s FAMILY.
This can be a touchy subject. Some of us have joy filled memories of family outings, picnics, celebrations, vacations, life. Others of us have quite the opposite. Our memories are dark, filled with memories of abuse, neglect, mistreatment, abandonment, life. I have personally experienced both.
What I’ve come to realize is that I cannot, WE cannot, allow the experiences, the situations, the circumstances of our PAST dictate the course of our PRESENT. It’s easy to play the VICTIM. It’s easy to remain stuck in the crap, trapped in the pain from past abuse, fearful of what could happen now, scared, untrusting, angry. Nobody LIKES to be there. Nobody WANTS to live like this. Yet we’re too afraid to get out or simply don’t know HOW to get out…to break FREE!
You can’t heal a wound by saying it’s not there.
Jeremiah 6:14 TLB
Too many of us simply try to ignore the pain from our past. Too many of us simply stuff it away, cover it up, brush it aside. IT DOESN’T GO AWAY! It merely festers and grows and poisons our soul. To be set free from the pain of your past you gotta learn to let it go. You have to be willing to give it to Jesus, to lay it down at the foot of the cross, and LEAVE IT! DON’T pick it back up! Let it go!
For many of us this pain holds us back from being the men and women God intends for us to be. We fail to experience JOY because we cling to the PAIN. We become so wrapped up in our PAST that we neglect our families in the PRESENT. Desperate and disappointed, we demean our spouse, we ignore our children, we isolate from family and friends. Who can we TRUST? How can we LOVE? We find ways to occupy our time (TV, work, hobbies, etc.)…
We continue the cycle of abuse without even knowing it.
Here’s what I’d like you to do. Take a few moments and get somewhere quiet. Get alone. Get on your knees and ask for God’s help. Ask him to reveal how you’ve mistreated your family. Ask him if you’re holding on to any resentment toward your family. Ask him to show you whom you owe amends. Ask him to help you STEP OUT OF DENIAL and STEP INTO HIS GRACE!
Will you LET GO of the past so you can LOVE your family in the present?
And it’s all because you chose to NOT go to sleep at a decent time? That was my morning. I had no one to blame but myself. Believe me, I tried to find SOMEONE to blame, but all fingers pointed at me. So, I just laid in bed. I didn’t bother to get up and make my wife’s coffee. I didn’t make breakfast for the kids. I didn’t do anything of the things I typically do. I was IN the house, but I wasn’t PRESENT.
Today, we’re talking about your FAMILY. So, far we’ve discussed how we can allow our MIND and BODY to become obstacles to experiencing the full expression of God’s presence in our lives…today, it’s FAMILY.
This can be a touchy subject. Some of us have joy filled memories of family outings, picnics, celebrations, vacations, life. Others of us have quite the opposite. Our memories are dark, filled with memories of abuse, neglect, mistreatment, abandonment, life. I have personally experienced both.
What I’ve come to realize is that I cannot, WE cannot, allow the experiences, the situations, the circumstances of our PAST dictate the course of our PRESENT. It’s easy to play the VICTIM. It’s easy to remain stuck in the crap, trapped in the pain from past abuse, fearful of what could happen now, scared, untrusting, angry. Nobody LIKES to be there. Nobody WANTS to live like this. Yet we’re too afraid to get out or simply don’t know HOW to get out…to break FREE!
You can’t heal a wound by saying it’s not there.
Jeremiah 6:14 TLB
Too many of us simply try to ignore the pain from our past. Too many of us simply stuff it away, cover it up, brush it aside. IT DOESN’T GO AWAY! It merely festers and grows and poisons our soul. To be set free from the pain of your past you gotta learn to let it go. You have to be willing to give it to Jesus, to lay it down at the foot of the cross, and LEAVE IT! DON’T pick it back up! Let it go!
For many of us this pain holds us back from being the men and women God intends for us to be. We fail to experience JOY because we cling to the PAIN. We become so wrapped up in our PAST that we neglect our families in the PRESENT. Desperate and disappointed, we demean our spouse, we ignore our children, we isolate from family and friends. Who can we TRUST? How can we LOVE? We find ways to occupy our time (TV, work, hobbies, etc.)…
We continue the cycle of abuse without even knowing it.
Here’s what I’d like you to do. Take a few moments and get somewhere quiet. Get alone. Get on your knees and ask for God’s help. Ask him to reveal how you’ve mistreated your family. Ask him if you’re holding on to any resentment toward your family. Ask him to show you whom you owe amends. Ask him to help you STEP OUT OF DENIAL and STEP INTO HIS GRACE!
Will you LET GO of the past so you can LOVE your family in the present?
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