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Addiction comes to rob us of those we hold most dear. God’s redemption lights up the dark places with a glow the world can’t provide.
We live in a culture that encourages us not to take our own suffering seriously…
Alice Miller, The Drama of the Gifted Child
Children living with an addicted parent struggle with the reality of what they see versus what they feel. Maybe this is your story, maybe it is a friend’s story or your spouses. The Pew Research Center found in a 2017 study that 46% of Americans had a friend or family member whose addicted to drugs. What does that really look like in a family? Better yet, what does it feel like to the children growing up alongside addiction?
The Faces of Addiction In Families
In her debut book, Three Weeks to Forgiveness: A Story of God’s Redemption in the Dark Places of Addiction, Kimberly Dewberry, shares her personal struggle as a child of an alcoholic. Tenderly told, Kimberly’s writing grips the reader with her personal story as she infuses the truth that God showed her many years later. Without much “church background” Kimberly comes face to face with a God who surrounds her with healing and love. As she puts it:
My mind was a jumbled labyrinth I could not escape. I spent every second of every day running through the maze of my mind and coming to a dead end at every turn. The world seemed to have no color and I had no purpose. (Dewberry, p.135)
Early Love Smashed
Dad was a gentle giant, but things changed when alcohol entered our lives. He left the house frequently. He stayed hidden in the bedroom with the door closed and the TV loud. He withdrew from the family. The loving familiarity dissipated. (Dewberry, p.17)
In the early years, I imposed blame upon myself with the help of Satan’s lies telling me it was my fault Dad turned back to the bottle. The enemy repeated to me I was too much to handle, so Dad had to pop the top on his first can soon after I turned fifteen. (Dewberry, p. 22)
God’s redemption?
Children of alcoholics grab on to their parent’s pain and inflict it upon themselves. Silently grappling with why they are not loveable and worthy of care and attention.
I resisted God’s best for me because I thought I wasn’t worthy of love from anyone, especially from God. The enemy’s lies telling me I did not deserve real love pounded in my ears. Instead of rejecting those lies and turning toward the truth of God’s word. I left shattered dreams and broken hearts along the way. (Dewberry, p. 33-34)
Struggling to manage her life, after marriage and now two children, she unwinds her tale with compassion for herself and the choices she made at the time. In between the honest story of her life, Kimberly lets the book rise to the surface for air with intermittent reflection chapters on God’s love.
Now as a seasoned Christian woman deeply vested in the scripture, Kimberly encourages her readers to seek out God’s truth in their lives. Opening our eyes to the lies of the enemy gives us the opportunity to hear what Jesus is really saying about us.
The Tale Deepens
Life is not for sissies! As Kimberly lived her life one day at a time, an opportunity to care for the one person who turned her young world upside down reappeared. Presented with a crisis surrounding the care of her now dying estranged Father, Kimberly could turn away. Did she?
But God loves us too much not to bring our hearts to Him through our life’s circumstances. Not through with teaching Kimberly about the His abundant love, God, lays several more heart-wrenching choices at her feet.
Snapping awake in the early morning day after day Kimberly meets God face to face. No church, no priest, no small group needed just a woman and her savior working out the details of a very messy life before dawn each morning.
Want to know what happens next to this very human daughter of the King? A Heroine of biblical proportions? Find out more in April with the release of God’s Redemption in the Dark Places of Addiction. A story of Gods redeeming love not to be missed. Pre-order today!
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I love this Tanya! I can’t wait to see how many lives are touched and changed through this book!
Rachelle – I think many folks will find themselves in this story. Three Weeks to Forgiveness give us such a clear look at how the child in an alcoholic family feels.