God restores broken families

The Beauty of Broken

I come from a broken family. And despite my very best attempts to produce a formulaically perfect Christian family in my second—the reality is that I still come from a broken family. We are messy – gooey in the middle – and I love my family more than I ever thought possible, brokenness and all. I love who they are and I love who they have made me to be.

I’ve come to discover that God offers hope in the form of “broken family values”—values like commitment, courage, humility, reality, relinquishment, diversity, partnership, faith, love, respect, forgiveness and thankfulness. He understands that no one is perfect. He knows the unique journeys of loved ones. He gets it that abnormal is actually pretty normal.

That people mess up and yet are worthy of respect and love and are never—ever—without hope.

God holds each family close, crying with his wounded children, tenderly assembling and reassembling fallen fragments, creating us into better versions of ourselves.

God doesn’t sweep the broken up into a dustpan and discard it. In order to reach the broken in our world, God himself broke, allowing his own Son to die a broken death on a cross for us. He brings beauty in the broken.

I come from a broken family. I still come from a broken family. And I’m pretty sure I’m not alone. I’m pretty sure that my story is likely yours too.

Elisa is an international speaker, an author for God Hears Her and Our Daily Bread, co-host of The God Hears Her Podcast and a co-host of Discover the Word. She has authored over twenty-five books on mothering, spiritual formation, and evangelism, including The NIV Mom’s Devotional Bible, The Beauty of Broken, Hello, Beauty Full, and When We Pray Like Jesus. For twenty years, Elisa served as CEO of MOPS International, now called MomCo. She is married to Evan, and they have two grown children and two grandchildren who live near them in Denver, Colorado.