Chapter One
Your Story
It’s not the most traumatic story in the world—but it’s my story.
A five-year-old girl forgotten at school, confused and afraid, told not to cry, rescued a few hours later. Not the stuff of a Lifetime movie. But enough to wound a vulnerable young heart? Absolutely.
Then there’s Allison.
Growing up with an abusive mother, Allison describes her childhood as “a flurry of fists, bruises, and baseless accusations.” Cut to the heart by the very person a child should trust most, Allison internalized every hateful word as truth—and received every strike as deserved. Yet for her, too, healing was possible.
What about you?
Your story may sound like mine. It may sound more like Allison’s. Chances are it’s somewhere in between. Everyone has wounds. Everyone endures trauma. Whatever the details, your story is real, and it has had seen and unseen consequences in your life.
I can trace my anorexia all the way back to the lies I believed in my heart in that moment as a five-year-old. I can pinpoint fears that plagued me for decades. I can see patterns of control, people-pleasing, shame, and distrust that took root that afternoon.
Don’t get me wrong. My experience as a five-year-old can’t account for every wound in my life, but that day set in motion beliefs and agreements that I affirmed again and again until they functioned like well-worn grooves for my behavior.
If you think of your initial trauma like a seed, the rest of your experiences act like sun and water, growing and strengthening what’s already planted. By the time I’d reached adulthood, my little plant had become a jungle. I needed help. Maybe you do too.
That’s why I’m so glad you’ve picked up this book—because my story is about so much more than trauma and heart wounds. It’s about healing. After decades of operating out of the effects of trauma, I found healing as I learned to trace my wounds back through my life, and then journey forward with Jesus. You can do the same thing! And
