Page 12 - MyFaith Mag JULY 2016 Web 001

OPINION In each and everyone of us there is a suffering child carrying hurt from
childhood experiences such as rejection, abandonment and abuse.
HEALING Many of these experiences also have the power to leave us with
THE feelings of shame.

WOUNDED To protect and defend ourselves from a future similar pain, we often
CHILD. involve ourselves with activities that will shut the noise made by the
child in us. However, we often fail to realise that by ignoring that voice
BY ERIC LINDILE KONA we are merely suppressing the problem. All of our experiences are
stored in our subconscious mind, which is why when a similar incident
12 | JULY 2016 occurs in our lives we find past pains reappearing and manifesting in
fear, bitterness, hatred and anger. This often leads to us saying and
doing things that we regret later on.

The failure to find healing and closure often result in fights between
friends or family members. One can try to run away and not deal with
issues but the inner child will always cry for attention. Ways of running
is avoiding introspection and busying ourselves with things such as
watching television, going to movies, drinking alcohol, using drugs,
gambling and other forms of socializing. The inner child, however, still
cries out for help.

People around us may often carry around their own past pain and
because we have not dealt with our own pain, are unable to accept
them. Our judgment and rejection of others will simply increase the
pain and open up wounds in themselves. Often strife between people
is the result of this inability to deal with critical issues.

Take the South African society as an example - today we are facing a
huge crisis of manifesting hatred and anger. People of different races
hate one another, that sometimes result in death. Crime is rife and
nobody seems to be willing to look at the root of this problem, which
is simply the results of unaddressed issues that has been passed from
generation to generation. Left alone the level of anger and aggres-
sion will rise daily. The world is confused and seeking answers from
churches and governments; when these expected answers are not
forthcoming fingers get pointed at them, blaming them for the failure
and the ignorance of society.

According to Exodus 20:5, God is saying that He will visit the iniquity of
the fathers upon the children until the third and the fourth generation.
Our forefathers started segregation policies, religion and tribalism, all
of which were bad seeds that grew to be hatred and bitterness today.
This animosity will affect the future generations as well as our children
in their own lives.

Healing from pain and hurt will make for healthy relationships and
peaceful living. The sooner one stops running away from issues and
rather address them, the sooner we can look outward to society at
large. It is critical we deal with every unconscious pain (the hurting
child) of our past.

Practically speaking it starts by writing down every trauma that
happened in our lives since we were born, identifying the root of our
pain. If people were involved in causing the pain (most often it will
be people) we have to forgive them. By doing this, we are emptying
our subconscious minds form all toxic thoughts that were there for
all those years and replace them with positive and Godly thoughts,
thoughts of love, peace, forgiveness, patience and kindness. We also
have to forgive ourselves!

Then, allow the love of Jesus Christ to flow in your life and let Him
heal you from all your inner pain because He paid for them on the
cross. You might pray something like this, “Lord Jesus, thank you for
bearing my burden on the cross. I ask you to take these inner pains,
hurts and memories and heal my wounded child right now, I submit
them to you and I accept Your peace now in Your name. Amen”.

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