Wounded Hearts

What is a wounded heart? A wounded heart can be defined as damage done to a person’s emotional foundation. These wounds are usually inflicted on us as children within the atmosphere of a broken‚ dysfunctional home background. Emotional wounds‚ if not acknowledged and worked through‚ will somehow‚ whether consciously or unconsciously‚ stunt and hinder our spiritual‚ emotional‚ social‚ relational, and/or sexual life. If unresolved‚ these wounds keep individuals from developing into a healthy‚ content‚ whole‚ productive person. In a nutshell‚ wounded hearts hinder life!

As a boy‚ my heart was wounded by several things: my dad’s alcoholism and rage‚ my parents’ divorce‚ and most of all‚ by childhood sexual abuse by two strange men. The question is not necessarily whether we come from broken homes or not‚ as a large majority of us do. More suitable questions are…did our background damage us? And‚ if so‚ how has the emotional damage become a part of us, and does it still manifest itself in our daily lives? Wounded hearts breed wounded hearts. Dysfunctional homes breed dysfunctional homes. If we do not choose to accept and work through our wounds‚ even though the wounds were not our fault‚ it is very likely we will repeat the very behaviors‚ in some form or another‚ that wounded us. We could then cross that line and move from a wounded heart to a “wounder” of hearts and hurt other people‚ especially those we love. After that, we enter a whole new category of responsibility and accountability before man and God! Our wounds are never an excuse to wound others. Those who sin against us are never an excuse to sin against others. We do not have to wound others like others wounded us. We have the human capacity and freedom of will to consciously choose to get help for and heal from our emotional wounds so that we will not unconsciously and/or consciously pass our wounds to the next generation. This should be motivation enough for all wounded hearts to go get help and have our hearts healed and made whole.

It was like a light went on when I realized for the first time at age 27 that I had unresolved emotional wound issues from my past. Finally‚ I knew why I had such pain. I understood myself and the world better. As I moved out of denial‚ I began a journey that has literally changed every aspect of my life! I hope by sharing my wounds with you that you will be touched and encouraged to reflect on your own life. This reflective evaluation will enable you to see if you too have wounds that need to fully surface. This will begin a process where you can heal‚ become whole, and move forward to be and do all that our Lord Jesus Christ desires you to be and do. The Wounds section on the right side of this page covers several issues of which most of them apply to my life, and some may apply to your life. I ask you to carefully and openly read each topic to see if it connects with and is relevant to you. If it does, and you are ready to begin the healing process even though it will hurt at first and take time‚ I hope you will apply the following information.

Regardless of the specific roots and causes of our emotional wounds‚ the principles and resources that helped me can also help you to work through and heal from emotional damage.

Next Steps:

Local Church Ministries for Counseling

Para-church Ministries for Counseling and Resources: 

In the Albuquerque‚ New Mexico area contact: 

Resource Ministries: 

Books: (Can be bought or ordered in local Christian Bookstores or online)