Old Wounds Bad Experiences
Many adults struggle with pain and scars from their childhood. The abuse some people experienced growing up in a home filled with violence, abuse, neglect, or parents who had addictions is not a simple matter to “put away.” Some of these hurts go very deep, and the natural response is to cover them with unhealthy substances like drugs and alcohol or unhealthy behaviors. The problem is that you don’t just flip a switch and forget about such things. It’s like taking your garbage and sticking it in a closet in your house. Pretty soon your whole house stinks.
God’s plan is to bring healing to your wounded heart. We all want to forget about these things. But how do you “put away childish things”? We need to be honest about our past. We can’t fool ourselves or say nothing ever happened. That’s not being truthful. Paul counsels, “Therefore, putting away lying, ‘Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,’ for we are members of one another” (Ephesians 4:25). There are many steps that can help you with this process.
Sometimes a Christian friend or counselor can walk you through letting go. Sometimes people overlook the role of forgiveness in facing their past. They stew in continued anger toward parents or others who hurt them. They feel justified in being angry, but it only traps them more deeply in bitterness and spoils their life. We will be free when we forgive “one another, even as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). This doesn’t mean we completely forget what happened, but it no longer becomes a central focus in our minds.
God has a purpose for our lives and can take all things, even the pain from our past, and make it into something beautiful in His time (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 11). He promises to heal our broken hearts and give us “beauty for ashes” (Isaiah 61:3).
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 1 Corinthians 13:11