If God Loves Me, Why Did He Allow This Pain? | Dr. Daniel Meola: #178

So you've obviously worked extensively with adult children of divorce.

And one of the things I know you know so well is that there's often a lot of struggle when it comes to faith, relationship with God.

And so I'm curious, based on all your experience, what are some of the most common struggles that adult children of divorce face in their spiritual life?

Yeah, I mean, there's so many different ways to approach this question.

And just, yeah, thank you.

Because, yeah, I think, you know, for me, I'm a Catholic, a Christian, you know, I consider faith kind of the deepest level of healing.

You know, we need good psychological formation.

We need good human formation.

But, you know, we need faith.

But so many of us struggle, struggle deeply.

And some of those struggles, or maybe the lion's share of those struggles, are from the wounds of our parents growing up.

And maybe to introduce this topic, maybe I'll start with a story that just kind of came to mind.

I remember me and this woman, we run retreats.

We came on a retreat in Denver and we're doing a one-on-one kind of walking in the foothills of the Rockies.

I guess they're not foothills, the mountains of the Rockies.

And she just had a ton of anger.

And she chiefly was like, I don't know why I'm talking to you.

My parents both were believing Christians, went to Mass, they were Catholics, every Sunday.

And what difference did the faith make? Their marriage didn't have major problems, and yet they still got divorced.

I don't see the point in the faith.

And I just find that so hypocritical.

Me and all my siblings have fallen away from the Catholic faith.

She, this woman, is dabbling in a bunch of different faiths.

And she's like, I just don't, I don't see the point.

Like, what difference did the faith make? And I just kind of sighed and I said, yeah, you know, sometimes when our parents divorce and separate, it can feel not just like a rejection and abandonment from them, but God too.