Some of our deepest childhood wounds come from the people we were told to be grateful for.
Sometimes, it wasn't the parent who left who hurt us the most. It was the parent who stayed the parent who was physically present but emotionally unavailable, carrying their own unresolved trauma and unknowingly passing it on to us. And that's a complicated pain to confront. How do you say “you hurt me” to the person who raised you? How do you acknowledge your trauma when you’ve been taught to focus on everything they sacrificed? So we minimise it. We bury it. We tell ourselves, “They did their best.” But understanding a parents trauma doesn't mean we have to ignore our own. You can love your parents, appreciate their sacrifices, and still hold them accountable for the wounds they left behind. This morning, we are asking: What happens when the parent who stayed is also the parent you needed healing from?