At the Moms in the Making conference this past fall, I attended Alicia Johnson’s breakthrough session, Fruitful in Soul. I didn’t know what to expect, but it ended up being incredibly powerful. One key takeaway stayed with me: “Go back to the place of pain, but this time bring God into that moment. Hand Him the pain you’ve been holding and release it to Him.”
After the conference, I shared this with my husband, and I could immediately see the wheels turning. I sensed the Holy Spirit prompting me to gently guide him to one of his own painful memories. At first, he resisted, but little by little I used Scripture to lead him there, especially Ezekiel 36:26: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
I reminded him that as we pray for a child, God also wants to heal the pain he’s been carrying. That opened something in him, and he shared a memory from childhood: his father would often drink, and one day took the kids to a bar, left them in the car for hours, then drove them home drunk on the freeway, nearly crashing multiple times. My husband said, “I was a little boy. He’s my father—he’s supposed to protect me.”
In that moment, I felt the Holy Spirit give me the words: “Your earthly father failed you that day, but your heavenly Father was protecting you and your brother. You don’t have to carry that pain or burden anymore. You don’t have to keep stuffing it down.”
I watched his shoulders literally grow lighter. We had stepped back into a moment where his soul had been fragmented, and we handed those broken pieces to God.
We also started practicing something Alicia taught: what enters the head moves into the heart; what settles in the heart becomes a belief system; and what we believe eventually comes out of our mouth. We’re choosing to be intentional with our words, speaking life over each other and gently correcting ourselves when we don’t.
This session marked the beginning of healing childhood trauma and breaking generational curses for both of us. It was a turning point, and we’re watching God restore what pain tried to take!