When you learn to hear your story through a new narrative, you can move toward becoming the person of God who is confident in his or her identity as God’s child and lives out of that. You can begin to believe you have a good Father. When you make these moves, ruins are rebuilt, identities are shed, and the kingdom of God moves forth on the earth with the power to rebuild the ancient ruins and heal.
I do not know the structure of your scaffolding to help you make the most of your days, but I know who does. If you take the time to be alone and see what your soul wears, see what you need to do to keep walking in the desert places, He will show you. Secure scaffolding provides a safe place for good work and healing to begin.
He doesn’t want your perfect house, or your perfect meals, or your perfect party, or your perfect Christmas card, or even your perfect family. He wants your heart. And as you give it to Him, He will give you Himself and help you to give His peaceful presence to others throughout Christmas.
For many, this year may have felt like one long season of winter or loss – a loss of dreams, loss of hopes, or loss of a beloved family member. But even though we have all experienced loss this year in one way or another, what the prophet Isaiah reminds us is that we have all been given a son.
His goal for me in this life was not for me to stop making messes; instead, I was to sit down at the table of His grace and mercy every time I made a mess. I was to sit down at a place He had already prepared for me because of the messes He knew I would make.
Earned secure attachment occurs step by step, minute by minute, and mile by mile when we tell our stories to an empathetic listener who invites us to see them through a different lens.
I’m learning that no matter how big the mess, the strength of the arms underneath remains unchanged. God’s arms are always strong enough to hold our messes, kind enough to forgive our spills, patient enough to clean up our dust, and holy enough to call us to a higher standard than comfort.
The point isn’t to have perfect words. The point is to make margin to have our words, and our hearts, exposed by the power of the Holy Spirit and a God who loves to set crooked things straight and make broken things new.
As we saw several weeks ago, understanding our own attachment styles can help us be better parents or caregivers to our children. But identifying our own attachment styles is only half the battle—we also need to know how children reveal their attachment styles to us....
As we courageously choose to look to our heavenly Father, we can heal from the past and love the people in our present and future well. So, keep reading, keep learning, and keep walking toward restoration. Healing and rebuilding are coming.