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,...
We all know the intense and very real pain that comes with estrangement from our children. The emotional chaos. Of course it is natural and right to feel pain over this: real, potent, rending pain.
But.....I am thinking this morning on those little moments. Like last night, when I took some tater-tots out of the freezer for supper. I got this piercing jab, because I realized the only reason they were IN my freezer was because ED enjoyed them. A gloom and sadness fell right over me, like a shade pulled down in daylight(it was a good day until then).
An emotional storm over frozen potatoes. Ahh..those jabbing cold stabs. This was not reasonable emotion, this was straight from the enemy. I knew it, even as I felt it. It came to my mind that I should sing the Doxology whenever I felt one of those 'out-of-the-blue' jabs.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below.
Praise Him above you heavenly hosts.
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
It very much helped. The pain was tempered rightly. I still felt it, but it was placed within God's picture, not my imagining of what that picture SHOULD be.
At night, I was reading and I came upon this, by GK Chesterton:
"Heed not thy feelings. Do thy work."
So after I sing the doxology, I will add that as well. Get busy, get mind off self. There is a time to cry and a time to examine, but don't let those little jabs from the devil incapacitate as you go through your day.
Go bless you all as your start this new day. There will be pain in this world, but HE overcomes the world.
But.....I am thinking this morning on those little moments. Like last night, when I took some tater-tots out of the freezer for supper. I got this piercing jab, because I realized the only reason they were IN my freezer was because ED enjoyed them. A gloom and sadness fell right over me, like a shade pulled down in daylight(it was a good day until then).
An emotional storm over frozen potatoes. Ahh..those jabbing cold stabs. This was not reasonable emotion, this was straight from the enemy. I knew it, even as I felt it. It came to my mind that I should sing the Doxology whenever I felt one of those 'out-of-the-blue' jabs.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below.
Praise Him above you heavenly hosts.
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
It very much helped. The pain was tempered rightly. I still felt it, but it was placed within God's picture, not my imagining of what that picture SHOULD be.
At night, I was reading and I came upon this, by GK Chesterton:
"Heed not thy feelings. Do thy work."
So after I sing the doxology, I will add that as well. Get busy, get mind off self. There is a time to cry and a time to examine, but don't let those little jabs from the devil incapacitate as you go through your day.
Go bless you all as your start this new day. There will be pain in this world, but HE overcomes the world.
I truly appreciate what you did to prevent that though....the doxology says it all. I am going to try to remember that as I try to finish up my thinning down our 5 family albums. I haven't gotten to the most current ones that were taken just one day before our DIL destroyed our family (with son passively allowing it to happen though).
Thanks so much for this uplifting post!
EJMA, How true. The enemy wants to tear is down over anything. Your response was praise. He didn't like that I'm sure. PTL!
So very true.
I sometimes wonder what it would be like to just be able to turn off love, when faced with these hostile children of ours. Though we'd escape the pain, life would be diminished. We would become what they imagine us to be.
The pain is a testament to our love, and our richness of soul. Though we do need to establish boundaries with our ECs, our continual hope(realistic, knowing our faithful God) for a parent-child love redeemed is a good sign of health. And if it comes to naught, God WILL be our portion and that might be the best lesson to learn of all.
God Bless!