One thing is for sure as I follow responses to recent news articles: countless adults are still deeply hurt from things that happened – or didn’t happen – in their childhood. Their voices and pens resonate with heartache.

Childhood matters. It doesn’t just go away in time. We don’t age-out of ourselves. The ten year old is still there, for better or worse. The fifteen year old is still there, the eighteen year old. It’s all a part of who we are today. It’s all an inextricable part of our story.

Don’t be too busy or grown-up to face things that hurt from long ago. Now might be the time to cry. Maybe it’s finally the time to apologize or to forgive. Maybe the time has finally come for you to find a listening advocate. Or to be one.

I recommend one particular resource for people on any side of the specific topic of sexual abuse: Diane Langberg’s Counseling Survivors of Sexual Abuse. If this issue has affected your life in any way, you will discover helpful scientific as well as spiritual guidance.

The good thing is that the story is never over.

“… fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” – The Lord God in Isaiah 41