Broken Love
- Lucrecia Slater
- Jan 10, 2017
- 4 min read
**DISCLAIMER** I have a 4yr old daughter who insists I watch Disney channel with her. So when I refer to the source of where this thought came from, charge it to the fact above! (Smiles, thank you!)
My daughter loves cuddling with me. I’m not for certain, but I strongly believe one of her love languages is physical touch. One ridiculously could morning, she wiggled her way next to me in the bed and said she wanted to watch television, “I want to watch something, Mom.” Yeah she’s the little boss around here…we give her back rubs on demand too (just kidding, for now). So she handed me the remote and I changed to Disney Jr, where Doc McStuffins was on. Many of you with littles are probably very familiar with that show. It’s cute and teaches the littles and some adults good lessons.
This particular episode, Doc discovered several broken toys. One of the broken toys, a circus lion, seemed very mean and negative. He had convinced other toys to stay with him in this deserted place because they were defected and no one would want them anyway. So, when one of the toys started to show signs that she didn’t want to be in such a lonely place anymore, the lion became upset. He tried hard to convince her to stay with him and the others, but it didn’t work.
Eventually, Doc found that toy, along with the rest. And since she has this magical stethoscope which allows her to speak to toys, she spoke to the lion. The lion reluctantly told her why he was so unhappy and wanted the other toys to stay and be unhappy with him. He said his “person” had disowned him and left him alone because he no longer worked. His toy heart, which was his voice box, had literally been broken. But his “heart” had also been broken because he was thrown away like trash. So, he became negative and acted out of that broken place. And along the way, he pulled others in with him.
Whoa, let’s stop right there and marinate. Did you catch that? WOW, right! Yeah, that’s what I said too when I saw that episode. Now mind you, I was half way paying attention. But when my ear caught the beginning of the lion’s conversation with Doc, I tuned in.
I tuned in because I thought, my goodness, how many of us walk around with this same mentality? How many of us have tried to function out of a broken heart? Try to love out of a broken heart? Do life out of a broken heart? Several of us!
When we’re broken, it’s hard to allow anybody to love us. Because we ourselves, don’t know how to love. We inadvertently become bitter and negative and operate from that space. We may not realize we’re broken or even accept that we’re broken, but when we become intentional about looking over our lives and actions, we see traces and signs of brokenness------negative, broken relationships, bad attitudes, being critical and judgmental, overly sensitive, negative perspectives, etc.
However, brokenness can’t and won’t be healed just because we see it. We must acknowledge our brokenness and take the necessary steps to be made whole. “So how do we do that, Lucrecia? Because you don’t know what I went through in my life! He/she/they hurt me! They damaged me!” These thoughts and questions are probably swirling through your minds. And I get it, I really do. But the words you’re reading are typed by the hands of a broken, but beautifully restored woman, Lucrecia (me).
Many of us have several charges against people who have hurt us and we have justification to act out and treat others how they deserve. But, think about this…God has that same right too, right? I mean, He did send His only Son to the cross for sins He never committed! Get my drift?
So how do we overcome staying broken?
We must first be willing to admit we’re broken. Just like the addict has to admit in recovery programs that he/she has a problem, so do we. We must repent and ask for forgiveness from God and whomever we hurt as a result of us being broken. And we must be willing to forgive. Forgive the offender(s) and ourselves. Colossians 3:13(NIV) says “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” Trust me, I know it’s hard. It feels downright impossible sometimes, especially when we think of the offense, all of the feelings and emotions gets rekindled. On the contrary, that’s exactly why we need to forgive the offender.
Forgiveness is to unlock and free us out of our prison. Forgiveness ushers God in through the Holy Spirit to heal that broken heart and patch up those holes in our souls. See, bitterness and grudges keep our hearts locked up from fully receiving and giving out love. We learn how to function from that broken place but that does more harm than good. After deciding to forgive and accept God’s forgiveness, we open the door and invite God in to do the work on our hearts. We invite Him in because He has never and will never force Himself in our lives. We extend the invitation by asking God to, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life” (Psalm 139:23, NLT).
Lastly, we make the decision moving through each day declaring what God says about us…that we’re whole, we are new creations, we are complete in Him, we are qualified. Sisters, we can learn to love from a renewed, restored, healed heart. We don’t have to allow brokenness to be the final stamp on our hearts. We may have been broken, but we can be beautifully restored! Blessings!!
More scripture references:
Ephesians 2:10
Colossians 2:10
2 Corinthians 5:17
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