For if you embrace the truth, it will release true freedom into your lives. (John 8:32)
We all have our own understanding of what a “normal” life looks like. We have all grown up with our own set of norms, expectations and behaviors that we have become accustomed to within our families and our daily environments. We know what a good day feels like and how conflict is generally handled. We take on traditions and modes of celebration. We learn to adopt certain mindsets and lenses through which we view the world.
One thing that I have discovered through my relationship with Christ is that sometimes the things I have always viewed as “normal,” aren’t normal or what’s best for us in his eyes. As we grow in our faith and learn more and more of God’s heart for us and those around us, we begin to see the areas where he is challenging us to let go of the mindsets and behaviors we grew up with and adopt His version of a normal life.
We all have our own areas where God is challenging us to let go. Maybe you grew up with a poverty mindset. Maybe there was always never enough and you learned to live in constant fear of how next months bills were going to get paid. Maybe you picked up anger along the way, and felt this could never change, after all explosive confrontation is always how problems have been dealt with in your family. Maybe in your home you learned to never deal with problems at all and to sweep everything under the rug and now you have difficulty with confrontation.
It all starts with a choice that we are willing to adopt what God says normal really is after all. We drop the lies that try to tell us, I was born like this. I can’t change. This is just who I am. This was always good enough for my family, why shouldn’t it be good enough for me? We choose to come with open hearts surrendered to God and to allow him to challenge our definitions and follow his lead into the best that He has for us. This is how generational chains of bondage get broken. This is how hereditary diseases and addictions stop revisiting our children. This is how we learn to live in true freedom and leave a legacy that’s worth leaving behind for the next generation to pick up.
It’s not easy. When you choose to pursue God and to chase after freedom, not everyone will be happy, especially those who have been key players in defining what normal has been for so long. You will meet resistance. People won’t understand why you are challenging the status quo. It is painful but there will always be those in our lives that choose not to follow us out of bondage, but would prefer to pull us back into it. Watching you pursue freedom and health and wholeness will make them feel uncomfortable and challenge them in ways they don’t want to be challenged. As a result, they may mock you, make fun of you, pin labels to you or even make you feel like you’ve abandoned them. Pursue freedom anyway. Pursue wholeness anyway.
Set boundaries where you need to. Pray for those who don’t support you. Show love anyways. Set it in your mind what you are willing tolerate and what you aren’t. Make a commitment that you won’t accept dysfunction as normal and don’t let anyone make you feel crazy for pursuing a different lifestyle than what was passed down to you. Never stop moving forward. Redefine what normal looks like in your heart, in your life and in your home. Leave a different legacy of “normal” behind.
Source: Theresa aka "T-Flow" https://www.justtflow.com/