The Early Years
Who do you see in the mirror? Do you view yourself through the lens of those who raised you, a troubled past, or an insurmountable present circumstance?
Imagine you are an actor and your starring role in a movie ended with a horrible car crash that left your character with both physical and emotional scars. Now imagine watching that scene over and over again, year after year. Repeatedly, you see your head hit the steering wheel. It’s hypnotic, dizzying, and morbidly exciting. You’ve become a pseudo-addict to the make-believe pain. What’s really trippy is that you are having a hard time separating real life from fiction. You start to believe the crash really happened and you’ve been badly hurt. You touch your forehead, disbelieving that there isn’t a scar.
Now imagine that you’ve ruminated on an event from your childhood or an event from your past so many times it’s become embedded in your subconscious brain. That is what happens when we replay things enough times. This is why people feel emotionally raw and stuck. They are holding on to the pain. In this way, they are retraumatizing themselves. It’s why it feels as if the past still has control over them.
The past cannot hurt you, but you can hurt yourself by holding on to it.
Are you tired of carrying around the weight of your past? Ready to gift yourself by detaching from the parts of your past and the words spoken to you that you’ve used to wrongly define you? Many people have risen from the depths of an accursed childhood or been misunderstood, neglected, and not “seen.” It’s a big club. You need to get over it and decide if you are ready to get well and finally make your life count. To do this, you stop lying to yourself by believing that others have control over your emotions. No one has the power to make us feel a certain way. We allow it. The moment you begin taking personal responsibility for your thoughts and behavior, and examine yourself truthfully, you will be able to create real change.
Start looking through God’s lens so you can see what He sees (Psalm 139:13–16 NKJV).
It’s time to make a decision! To dig deep and ask yourself if you are done living a life that doesn’t showcase your best self under the weight of the past.
Life is a gift. What you do with it is your gift to yourself and others.
“For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7 NJKV).
