As a child of an alcoholic father, I felt it necessary to do a devotional series on the impact this has on a woman’s life. When we are children, our vulnerability is impacted when we have an addict as a parent, especially a father. As a result, we are likely to grow up with a skewed image of who God truly is. We often have fear and anxiety as a result of searching for normalcy.
Please join me for October’s four-week series, where we will dig into just some of these questions and how God’s Word addresses them. You are not alone!
Have you lived with an alcoholic parent?
Do you have a skewed image of who God the Father is?
Have you lived a life of elevated fear and anxiety as a result of growing up with an alcoholic parent?
Have you watched a loved one struggle with addiction and felt out of control?
Have you had difficulty with trust as a result of living with alcoholism?
Have you searched for solutions, but couldn’t find exactly what you were looking for?
You may recall in a former post, I shared about my dad. If you missed it you can go back and read it here. Dad struggled with an addiction to alcohol and prescription medication for the last thirty or so years of his life. His struggle was not his alone, though. I struggled with his addiction, too. Until I turned fifteen, he remained clean and sober. Then something changed. What changed, I don’t know. From that point on, my life changed too. I became a child of an alcoholic parent.
As an adult, I often felt fearful and anxious, but couldn’t figure out why. Through counseling with a Christian therapist and growing closer to God, I realized why. We fear the unknown. Living with an alcoholic is fearful because we don’t know from one moment to the next if something will anger the drinker. We are anxious because we are trying to overcome our lack of normalcy. I learned through God’s loving grace, how he alone can ease my fearful heart and calm my anxious mind.
This week’s Scripture shows us what to do when fear or anxiety grows.
Matthew 6:34
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Jesus offers us comfort. He tells us not to worry about what happens today and not to be concerned with tomorrow. Our mantra should be “I’ll do my best to handle today, tomorrow will handle itself” or we can adopt “I will live one day at a time.” I cannot control life’s occurrences and interruptions. I cannot control the behavior of others. I cannot control today or tomorrow. God is in full control of it all. He has it covered. He loves me enough to show me through his Word that I should not worry.