With everything I have learnt & recognising my own destructive behaviours, I can no longer look at others' bad behaviour without wondering what traumas are at the root of it. These past 2 years have made an enormous difference in my family's lives. As I've healed, I've seen much change happening in my family & because of the change he's seen in my life, Clive has also taken up pursuing his healing. Our 20-year-old has started to come out of his shell more & for the first time in his life, I heard him say "I love you" in November.

Trauma compromises our ability to engage with others by replacing patterns of connection with patterns of protection.

Yes, our pain, trauma & feelings are valid, BUT this is about a journey of healing & restoration through discovering how we have sinfully responded to the offences & traumatic events. It’s about forgiving those who hurt us from a healed heart & having our broken hearts mended like only Christ can so we can stop bleeding all over those around us. It's time to rediscover & BE the real YOU God has created you to be, not the boxed-up version society has forced you to become. It's time to learn to have FUN, to be still & rest on the Father's lap.

Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment & the handcuffs of hatred. It's the power that breaks the chains of bitterness & the shackles of selfishness - Corrie ten Boom

I discovered that all those very noble causes I spent my life doing, church, choir & serving, were, in fact, false refuges. Yes, I discovered the motive of my heart for doing all those things was a need to be needed & I was medicating my pain, not with alcohol, addictions, or other ugly habits, but with religion, serving & being a martyr to satisfy my need to be accepted & acknowledged. My self-worth was wrapped up in serving others instead of my identity in Christ.

Parental inversion is not an easy sin to hate. The difficulty is that it has become for many the most noble definition of life; the sacrifice and service it involves are readily justified by Scripture. But God asks us to lay down our lives for others for His sake rather than out of the impure motives of our wounded hearts. The problem is not what we are doing but WHY.

I spent my life suppressing, denying, minimising & hiding my pain. You know that LIE that all is well & I am FINE whilst internally falling apart. I've lived it for as long as I can remember. My fine meant Freaking Out - Insecure - Neurotic – Emotional, but very few people would ever look you in the eye to search for the truth. We all know what Scripture says will happen to LIARS, right?

A crushed spirit affects us physically, emotionally, & spiritually. However, most people aren't aware of trauma's effects. Even science has proven that many aspects of physical illness are rooted in unresolved trauma because our bodies will manifest what we refuse to deal with. For example, cancer is rooted in bitterness & unforgiveness. Anger can affect your heart and gut & cause headaches. I've woken up every single morning with stomach cramps for decades, but they’ve been gone since D-School prayer ministry. If there are unexplainable aches & pains even doctors can't find an answer to, it may be worth exploring whether it’s rooted in trauma.