I don’t live in rejection today. With my voice, I moved my family away from me. I did this.
It’s easy to return to the depth of despair that I used to live in and remember the events as my family walking away from me. That, however, is not the truth of this matter. I walked away from them.
Why is that important to remember?
Power lives in our words. For good, for evil or maybe even just to bring levity, but our words matter.
There is power in language and we need to harness that for our own good.
I went to dinner with my husband several months ago and sat down to enjoy a beautiful night together. All of the sudden, I hear a very familiar voice. When I turn to see who the voice is coming from, it’s my brother. He’d just had another heart attack a few weeks earlier.
I had a decision to make. What would I do with this encounter?
In years past these run-ins with my family used to be devastating for me. I’d hunt for the right words when I saw them hoping for their acceptance of my battle for the truth. Sometimes in anger, I would send them away from my table by speaking my words of truth. I had the right to be angry with them, by the way. They’d done everything they could to stand against the truth.
So, you see again, it was with my words that I found my freedom. It wasn’t their words that set me loose from the dysfunctional family grip. They’d never want me free.
Freedom meant they were damned to either tell the truth as well or live out their days in complete denial. My words burdened their lives — while at the same time, my words were setting me free.
I am forever grateful for a God who never walked away from me. No matter how much my life took bizarre twists and turns that sometimes didn’t look so good, He stood right beside me.
He is the God who never walks away.
