CHRISTIAN PARENTS of ESTRANGED ADULT CHILDREN Community Group
Estrangement makes it difficult to talk about with family, friends, neighbors and church members. Christians are NOT immune to broken families. Talk about your experiences with those who know how you feel and get positive support through your Christian faith...."In these last days difficult times will come, for men will be lovers of self...disobedient to parents,...
Not sure I will live through this.
tooheartbroken
I have a long story, way too long to share on here. In summary, though I was told by so many people that I was born with so many blessings...physical beauty, above average intelligence, a good heart, funny, acquired the highest degree in education...and so on....my life has been an endless tale of losses, rejection, unfairness, sadness, pain, and tragedy. It seems to worst than ever since I accepted the Lord as a Jew 22 yrs ago. It took every bit of strength to be happy and feel good about myself until I made the poor choice of marrying who I believed, at the time, was my soulmate and God's choice for me. To the outside world, we were the poster couple and family after our precious daughter was born, but only my family knew the torture I endured as a result of being married to a pill addict. My life was marked by anxiety, chaos, and abuse. I did the best I could to be the wife that God wanted me to be and to have hope of restoration, as my husband had also accepted the Lord months after I did, when our child was still an infant. We attended church at least twice a week and raised our daughter to be a Christian, which I know she was at a very young age. My husband was a saint and the devil all in one person, depending on the day, month or year. It was very difficult for me and many times I was overcome by anger, as deceit was always lurking around the corner which made it impossible for me to trust my husband for any length of time. I did all I could to protect my daughter from the hell I lived in and to raise her with as much happiness as possible. We did have many moments of joy as a family and my daughter adored her daddy who was fun and loved her to the best of his ability. He was also a very good provider. Fast forward....just when I thought that God had answered my prayers and that all of my sacrifices had paid off, my husband went off the deep end, abandoned us, and did very cruel things to both myself and my daughter. He died shortly after of an overdose and left us broken in every possible way. I still provided very well for my child and brought her laughter even when all I wanted to do was cry. I defended her, protected her, loved her beyond anything she could ask for, took care of her every need possible, modeled good morality and values; but none of that was good enough for her. We went from having the most beautiful, fun, and loving relationship to her hating me and treating me with disdain and a complete lack of respect. I began to weaken by so much abuse. She even attacked me once physically, leaving me with a broken rib, a concussion, and a deformed face which healed after over a month. She had no compassion any longer and was a completely different child than the one I had known and thought I had raised with so much affection, love, and kindness. After much prayer she seemed to change as she went to college and was now starting to appreciate me once again. I went through a very difficult year in 2014 after an almost deadly car accident where I was left with a concussion once again and PTSD, which developed into a severe depression. My daughter had just started to seriously date a wonderful Christian boy, 4 yrs her senior and I was very happy for her, but I needed her help as I deteriorated more and more. She returned to her previous ways of being cruel to me and refusing to help me in any way. I reached the lowest point of my life and had no desire to live any longer. However, I overcame it, she apologized to me, and things were seemingly great again. We were very close and out of the clear blue, 6 months ago, she severed all contact with me shortly after her boyfriend moved to her college town. She wrote me an email after I begged her to tell me why. It was filled with distortions about how I had accused her for years of being selfish, cruel, and emotionally abusive but that I was the one who was all of those things, that she was not responsible for my life, that my irresponsibility was my fault, that I had blamed her for things she never did and made her apologize over and over, and that she needed space from me to get well for as long as she needed. My daughter had turned me into "mommy dearest" overnight and for no valid reason!. None of what she wrote was true and she always knew that she could work anything out with her mom, yet now she was refusing for some strange reason. She's wanted nothing to do with me no matter how much I've pleaded with her, asked her to discuss things with me as I cried to her in voice messages, reminded her that her behavior was not Godly, and that nobody gets well by damaging another person, especially their mom! I was already in a fragile state. My career suffered terribly after the car accident, I haven't been able to form a new relationship with a man, and what my daughter did and how she did it has caused me damage that I believe is beyond repair. She doesn't seem to have a heart anymore and a hatred for me that nobody understands why all over again. I am broken and feeling hopeless like never before. How can I ever trust her again? My faith is almost nonexistant, as I wonder how God could allow so much injustice in my life, which seems endless with the latest one from my only child being the lowest and most painful blow I ever received in my life. Please forgive me for making this so long. I am in so much pain that I can hardly breath and have no motivation to do anything. Not to mention that I'm also recovering from pneumonia. Why would I bother if everything I worked so hard for in my life has turned into nothing or a source of misery???
A few things to keep in mind:
~ do something you like to do- re-visit a hobby, treat yourself to shopping, manicure, exercise in a way that you enjoy~ don't curl up in a ball and cry all day -- I've done that a lot, and it's non-productive!
~ my favorite post on this website ever is one called "salt the feed" If you look back at the discussion topics, you can find it. EXCELLENT practical advice for living a worthwhile life so that our EC will WANT to come back.
~ unfortunately, I think these children enjoy manipulating and controlling us. Don't let them have that power over your life. Our hope/joy/fulfillment is in Jesus Christ alone.
Time helps and this will pass and oh will you grow spiritually. I know estrangement and the nightmare our family has endured is certainly not the way I would have chosen, but I have to remind myself constantly that He sees all and knows what's best.
Big hug through the computer for you :) Hang in there.
You are at the early stages of greiving. Forgiveness comes in time in obedience to God but also for ourselves. We have been betrayed. Jesus understands. He was betrayed the most. We can persevere because we know the Lord and He will not leave us. This is the hardest thing and the most heartbreaking thing most of us will ever face and it affects us on every level. He will not fail. The only thing we can do is pray for our EC but mostly ourselves to heal and to have the strength to go one day at a time. Healing takes time. Stay close to the Lord and His Word. We are here for you.
Don't stop praying. They know what they're doing, but not really knowing what they're doing. They are filled with lies from Satan and others. Prayer for yourself that you'll keep trusting God. Don't let Satan pull you away.
When faced with a crisis it can be used to pull us closer to God. We don't know the end, but God does. He can surprise you.
There are many ways to pray. We can simply pray that God will change the hearts of our EC. Only He is able! Put your ES in His care. Please read the Psalms. They will bring comfort. The Holy Spirit is with you. He promised!
Having said this - the Holy Spirit is nudging me to tell you something I learned through all of this: When you can't pray, when you are too hurt to pray, when you feel your prayers are not said in truth, then you pray "Through HIM".
Let me explain - My rejection from both of my children in June 2013 came just a mere 7 years after their father rejected me after 'six-weeks-shy' of what would have been our 29th anniversary, add on top of the rejection and abandonment from my dad when I was 5-6 yrs. old and the rejection, abandonment, physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of my mother and her 'boyfriends' and the pedophile she married when I was 8-9yrs., and add the 4 foster homes I've lived in as well and numerous family members we were 'dumped' on for weeks on end....(see the picture - LOTS of issues of anger over ONE MORE PERSON WALKING OUT ON ME!!!) I did not want to pray!! I did not want to forgive those two ungrateful children that I gave my entire life to - that I worked so hard in counseling to break every abusive 'chain' that was on me to be the mother to them that I so desperately wanted myself. And the ONE THING they could have ever said to me to cause the most heartache came out of their mouths on the same day via phone calls (planned calls) - 'I'm emotionally abusive, I'm emotionally immature, I make everything about me, I manipulate them every chance I get, and on and on and on...." (this happened when my first grandchildren were 7 weeks old, twins, which I only held once - a week before 'the calls')
So, when others say to pray for them - how can you when the heart is so hurt????? This is how:
God, my Father, I come to you with a broken heart. The children you blessed me with have broken me and I am so hurt - I don't want to pray for them, Father. I don't want to forgive them. I cannot see them as You see them. Please help me, Lord. Please let me see them through Your eyes - let me forgive them through You, because right now I do not want to forgive them, show me how love them as You love them, not as my children but as Your children, loaned to me for a brief time. Let me pray for them as You would have me to not as my heart wants to reject them. Let me remember the good we share with joy and not sorrow - that everything comes through You. Hold me while I cry out to you and hold them as they reject us both. Forgive of my sins where I may have erred in being their mother. Heal my brokenness through Your love, In Jesus name, Amen.
months now. She doesn't care that I'm suffering. I fear that she is a full blown narcissist like her father was and her paternal grandmother who enjoyed inflicting pain on her victims. I had never seen evil like that till I met that family. I studied it in school, but experiencing it up close is so different. Please tell me if your heart has really healed and if it's even possible? I have a few moments of relief when I'm very busy, but they're short-lived. I don't know how a heart can heal when there is no closure in a situation like this. The hope that they'll be back and all will be well is always there and each day is another stab in our heart when it doesn't happen. It's a perpetual, never-ending rejection. I'm not going to pray for joy and healing. It would never be real if this continues. She's my only child. I also gave my everything to her and will never find happiness without her in my life. I'm praying for a miracle now and if it takes too long, I'll be praying for God to have mercy on me and to take me home. How much pain and disappointment can a heart endure? God bless you for your kindness. May God have mercy on you and bring your children back to their mom where they belong.
I'm no longer angry at my kids - hurt, yes, disappointed, yes but anger takes too much out of me so I give it to God. Healing only comes from God - He IS my strength, but no, healing has not come to me - I still cry...when I'm alone... and not every day like it was a year ago, I don't trust - always had issues with trust but even more so now, I don't reach out to new people and am very quiet around those in my life now. I am in counseling...again....and I go almost every week, two weeks is the longest I've ever been without it since starting back in May 2014.
I don't think I'll ever be "happy" as I was when my children were in my life - that is no longer possible - but I do have happy moments. You will have them, too, one day. Allow your heart to feel those moments - we need that break from the heartache. I understand your wanting God to "take you home" - its a constant prayer for me, too. But God says no and that tells me my story is not over yet. We cannot take our lives out of God's plan, no matter how much it hurts, and believe me when I say at 53 years of age my life has hurt more than not. Hold on to Him, read His word, talk to HIM without ceasing in your head/heart. He will see you through this dark time. Your in my prayers, tooheartbroken. (((hugs)))