Did You Deserve Better?

Every child deserves a good childhood. This includes you. You should have been born to two loving, caring parents who worked together to make a happy home. If you did not have that, you got cheated, and that’s not fair.

It is not fair if you were born into dysfunctional circumstances. It is not fair to you if your parents divorced, or were abusive or were addicts or reprobates. You should have been given the tenderness, love, support, teaching, training and resources you needed to get a good start in life. You deserved that, and you also deserve to have good memories of childhood, of being made to feel that you were loved, valued and that you belonged.

If you did not get these things, you need to know that it was not your fault. You also have a right to feel cheated. You have every right to cry and be sad and angry and resentful about the fact that you were not given what you and every child should be given. Such negative and difficult feelings are legitimate and need to be recognized and validated.

Clinging to these emotions, however, only prolongs and deepens the negative and debilitating effect they have on you. Somehow, you must deal with them and move on. If not, you will carry this evil baggage into the next generation of innocents who don’t deserve it any more than you did.

The only potent resolution is to bring your baggage to God. Let Him be your new Father, Jesus your new Brother, the Holy Spirit your new constant companion and the Lord’s church your family.

You have to move on. No one can undo the past, but with the help of God, you can rise above it. As Jesus said 2,000 years ago:

“Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30