In Luke 4, Jesus reveals that restoration and redemption are at the center of His mission.
We need His restoration and redemption in all areas of our lives. One of these areas is our sexuality, which the enemy constantly attacks because of the ways in which it reveals God’s love.
We all have wounds in this area. Our over-sexualized culture has made sure of that. Whether it be patterns of sin, wounds in our early relationships, or more obvious wounds like sexual trauma, we all need Jesus’ healing and restoration in our sexuality.
This page may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support of Tria Corda Ministry!
Through his book Be Restored, Dr. Bob Schuchts aims to help us understand how we have been wounded in the area of sexuality and provides tools, exercises, and prayers to help us move from shame to love, from disintegration to integration.
To pick up your copy, learn more, and access his exercises, visit this link.
How We Can Be Wounded
Dr. Schuchts begins his book by describing how we can be wounded in the area of our sexuality.
These wounds fall into two different categories.
The first category is sexual violations. These wounds happen in a more direct way, and can include things like sexual abuse, sexual sins, and sexual play.
To understand the second category of wounds, we first need to understand the stages of healthy psychosexual development. They include:
- Developing a healthy attachment to our parents (from ages 0 to 2)
- Developing and receiving the blessing of our identity as a man or woman (from ages 3 to 5)
- Finding acceptance and belonging in our peer group (from ages 6 to 12)
- Finding self-mastery and integration of our sexual desires (from ages 13 to 22)
- Engaging in self-giving love in our vocations.
When these things do not happen, such as not having a great attachment to a parent or being rejected by our peers, we experience the second category of wounds, called psychosexual deprivations.
These things, and our reactions to them, such as our sins, result in our sexual disintegration and require God’s love to restore them.
The Ways We Find Healing
Finding restoration involves addressing the following layers of wounds and sins:
- Sexual sins
- Sexual compulsions
- Gender identity distortions
- Sexual abuse and betrayal trauma
- Wounds in psychosexual development
Restoration can begin at any layer and move up or down the stack as the Holy Spirit guides the process.
In the second half of the book, Dr. Schuchts provides many tools, exercises, and prayers for pursuing healing and restoration in each of these areas. These include:
- Acknowledging the consequences of our sexual sins and compulsions, and repenting of them. Dr. Schuchts suggests making a whole-life Confession to help with this acknowledgment and repentance.
- Renouncing the identity lies we have come to believe as a result of our sexual wounds
- Practicing forgiveness towards ourselves and others
- Receiving God’s love in the sacraments
- Learning from the Holy Family, who are models of sexual integration
You can find more details on these practices for pursuing restoration in the book.
Conclusion
We all have faced some sort of wounding in the area of our sexuality, and we are all in need of Jesus’ healing and restoration in these areas. I highly recommend picking up a copy of Dr. Schuchts’ book to learn more about your need for healing and find ways to pursue healing and restoration.