Our children don’t need us to silence their emotions. They need us to help them understand them. To show them it’s okay to feel deeply and to teach them what to do with that depth. We validate the storm inside. We hold the line outside. And in doing so, we help them learn what it means to be both human and whole.

For much of my life, I did not know how to do this. I had dismally failed in this area, not because I didn’t love my children, but because I was not equipped to even deal with my own emotions. I had neatly boxed them away and spent years surviving in numbness, living in what I now call numbville. Survival felt safer than feeling.

Yet God in His mercy did not leave me there. As I pursued my healing, the ripple effect began. What the Lord restored in me spilled over onto my husband and children. Healing is never just for us — it overflows, it spills, it touches the ones closest to us.

📖 “The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.” — Psalm 34:18 (NKJV)

I see now that my failures were not final. God has been rewriting my story, layer by layer, storm by storm, until I could begin to model for my children what wholeness looks like. Not perfection, but authenticity. Not the absence of pain, but the presence of hope.

If you too feel like you’ve failed in this area, take heart. Healing is possible, and its fruit will not only restore you but also nurture the hearts of those you love most.

💡 Reflection:

• In what ways have you seen healing in your life ripple out to others around you?🤔

• Where do you still long for that overflow?🤔

🙌 Prayer:

Father, thank You that my healing does not stop with me, but flows into my family and generations to come. Help me to hold space for my children’s emotions, even as You continue to heal mine. May Your love and truth be the legacy we carry forward.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.