Jesus said, 'The words that...
Illustration
"Jesus said, 'The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.' "
A young mother in our church told of her struggle with the grip an abusive parent held on her. She said, "As a new parent, I felt inept. My only model for parenting was negative. When my son cried, I had to keep myself from instinctively doing hurtful things to him. At first, I felt as if my mother's harsh hands were inside my own hands. The echoes of her shouts at me crowded against my own ears. I started to blast out her shouts at my child. The last thing I wanted to do was to hurt my son as I had been hurt."
The woman said she found enough strength to break through the abusive cycle by doing deliberately just the opposite of what her parent had done to her.
"It took all of my energy," she said, "to quiet that hurting voice. I had to tell it to get out of there."
Feeling totally alone in parenting, she said, "Gradually, each time I made my hands be gentle with my son and my words be loving, I began to hear another voice speaking through me. God's voice didn't come as words but as a sense of encouragement. I was aware of another presence --stronger, loving, from within --helping me parent my son. I had a choice of which voice I would
listen to."
- Brauninger
A young mother in our church told of her struggle with the grip an abusive parent held on her. She said, "As a new parent, I felt inept. My only model for parenting was negative. When my son cried, I had to keep myself from instinctively doing hurtful things to him. At first, I felt as if my mother's harsh hands were inside my own hands. The echoes of her shouts at me crowded against my own ears. I started to blast out her shouts at my child. The last thing I wanted to do was to hurt my son as I had been hurt."
The woman said she found enough strength to break through the abusive cycle by doing deliberately just the opposite of what her parent had done to her.
"It took all of my energy," she said, "to quiet that hurting voice. I had to tell it to get out of there."
Feeling totally alone in parenting, she said, "Gradually, each time I made my hands be gentle with my son and my words be loving, I began to hear another voice speaking through me. God's voice didn't come as words but as a sense of encouragement. I was aware of another presence --stronger, loving, from within --helping me parent my son. I had a choice of which voice I would
listen to."
- Brauninger
