When I was about three, I spent the night at my father’s house in the Lincoln Heights Courts housing projects on the west side of San Antonio. I remember being abruptly awakened from my sleep. My father’s dad had come home drunk. I can still recall the curse words that flew out of my grandfather’s mouth like weapons. He cussed everyone out and threatened to kick us out of the house he “paid the bills for.”
My father gently talked to his drunken, anger-filled father and restrained him. This was not the first time my dad had had to do this.
I do not know the backstory of why my grandfather was doing what he was doing, but I can now see that my dad had his own share of daddy wounds. He was a spiritual orphan too. During a conversation with my dad in August 2012, I asked him, “What was your relationship with your father like?”
He said, “My father worked all day and drank cheap wine all night. In a drunken rage he would then try to beat my mom. As I got older, I learned to calm him down and stop him. I never thought about hurting him because he was my father, and I loved him.”
People live out of the hurt they feel or the healing Jesus provides. Your parents will never be perfect. And you will never be a perfect parent. But there is a perfect God who, over time, will bring healing to hurtful circumstances.
I spent years being angry and bitter toward my father. These toxic emotions only limited my life. Do not let anger and bitterness limit you too. Our Papa in heaven is the only One who can provide us with the love and, ultimately, the identity we have been created for—a child of God.
This is except is from page 74, of my book Limitless Life: You Are More Than Your Past When God Has Your Future.
