“…Angels came and attended Him.” — Matthew 4:11
The pace of Southern family life slows down in the summertime, making room for lazy days in the sun at the beach, or skipping rocks in a mountain creek, or catching fireflies in the twilight hours, or churning homemade ice cream on the back porch, or reading a good book during a thunderstorm, or chatting with friends on a balmy evening in a restaurant’s outside seating. Often it’s a time to get together with extended family over a backyard barbeque as cousins play games, siblings reconnect, aunts and uncles describe their vacation plans, and grandparents smile at everyone, thankful that their hearing is impaired.
But those extended family times can also carry undercurrents, can’t they? Because families can have a dark side. Every family includes those who have been wounded. Even Christian families. Even church families. Sadly, the most painful wounds are often those inflicted by another family member.
Have you experienced those kinds of wounds? Have you been wounded by one or more people within your own family? Do you know of another person in your extended family who has been wounded? Families are not always a safe place to be.
Jesus understands, because His family wasn’t safe when “He came to that which was His own…His own did not receive Him.”1 Yet Jesus loved His own. He welcomed their intrusion into His daily life, ministered to them as He taught and healed them, seeing them as sheep that needed a Shepherd.2
Even today, His family doesn’t always act like His family should. It includes the wounded…and the wounders. And so does my own family. I expect yours does, too, which can make them hard to love.
One thing I have learned is that our families do not have to be perfect in order for us to love them or in order for them to be a blessing. The sin and the shortcomings, the hurts and the heartaches, the failures and the fragments, the brokenness and the weakness, the mistakes and the memories, the rebellion and the wrong-doing, can be redeemed by our loving and gracious Heavenly Father.
So as you reflect on your summer family gatherings, or as you anticipate some still to come, don’t focus on the dark side. Focus on the One who has the power to transform and redeem. Then ask Him to help you be a ministering angel to the weak and wounded within your own family…for His sake.
For His Glory,
Click here for the Bible study especially developed for this newsletter.
Read what others are already saying about Anne’s new book, Wounded by God’s People…
“Anne has written a deeply personal book. You will be moved by her transparency and vulnerability as she shares her most hurtful wounds, inflicted by those in the body of Christ. But ultimately, as the story of Hagar shows and Anne illustrates so eloquently, God is the Great Healer of your wounded heart.”
–Mark Batterson, New York Times best-selling author of The Circle Maker
“Enemies cannot betray you. Only a friend can. And sometimes, that friend can emerge from your inner circle of closest confidantes. It’s why the wounds we suffer at the hands of other Christians always run deep and leave scars. Thankfully, my friend Anne Graham Lotz provides wise words of comfort and encouragement in Wounded by God’s People, one of her finest works. She answers the prophet’s age-old cry, ‘Is there no balm in Gilead?’ reminding us that Jesus restores, heals, and gives us the heaven-sent ability to forgive. I heartily recommend Wounded by God’s People for everyfollower of Jesus!”
–Joni Eareckson Tada, Joni and Friends International Disability Center
“I so appreciate Anne writing these honest words about the deep hurts of being wounded… betrayed… rejected… and accused. I know these hard places personally. And it’s doubly hard when it comes from within the body of Christ. But we don’t have to just stew and suffer alone. With great wisdom and deep empathy, Anne has given all of us wounded warriors a place of sweet grace to turn to when we get knocked down.”
–Lysa TerKeurst, New York Times best-selling author of Made to Crave and Unglued
When Christians cause harm to other Christians, there is often a ripple effect: you have the injury itself, then an inability to trust God’s people, and then even an inability to trust God Himself. Anne Graham Lotz provides hope and transformation for this issue in her book. I highly recommend it.
–Dr. John Townsend, leadership consultant and psychologist, co-author of Boundaries
Click here to continue reading what others are saying about Wounded by God’s People.
