After growing up in a broken family, Christian artist Austin French shares how these scars affect the way he loves his wife and kids.
Austin French
On his website, Austin French shared how he hated his family back then.
“I grew up in church, was surrounded by church culture, but I hated Christians for a long time,” Austin says. “Our family was the family that pretended to be perfect on Sunday but was falling apart behind closed doors. As an eight-year-old boy, I was living two different lives, expected to be perfect on Sunday and then living in fear at home.”
In his interview with 99.1 JOY FM, Austin said that he was just eight years old when his mother asked him if she could leave his father.
“And as an eight-year-old kid, I just remember saying, ‘Mom, I just don’t want to be hurt anymore.’ She asked me what I would think if she left my dad, and I just remember it was turmoil at home. I remember it being painful. I remember it being scary,” he said.
Growing Up In A Broken Family
As an eight-year-old kid, that was ingrained in his memory. It became a core memory that doesn’t ever seem to go away. Austin said that their family was not treated well in their little town at the time. People started to take sides between his mom and dad. But it wasn’t the only thing that he was concerned about. Austin remembered that he and his sisters tried to help his mother in any way possible.
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“And so what it built in me and my sisters is, ‘Hey, we’re in this together. We need to pull our weight. We need to get jobs. And we need to do whatever we can to help Mom out,’” he recalled.
Now that Austin is a father himself, he couldn’t help but get emotional seeing his 8-year-old son not go through the same. Even though those wounds “shaped him,” he’s grateful that their home is a safe place for their kids.
No Longer A Broken Family But A Safe Place
“And I look at him and he doesn’t worry about where his meal’s coming from. Doesn’t worry if someone’s going to hit him. He just feels safe. And I’m so grateful that me and my wife can create a safe place for my kids,” he said. “And now getting to be a dad with a little boy around that age of when my life fell apart, I feel that. I feel the responsibility and also the gift of just being able to do it differently.”
Now that Austin is a father himself, he couldn’t help but get emotional seeing his 8-year-old son not go through the same. Even though those wounds “shaped him,” he’s grateful that their home is a safe place for their kids.
“When you’re willing to walk into the uncomfortable, grace is there to meet you. Because, I don’t know, redemption isn’t supposed to be easy. Satan is going to try to grip as tight as he can. Isolate [you] as good as he can. And make you feel as alone as he can. But redemption rolls back the stone and says, “Lazarus, come forth,”” Austin said.
Reference: 99.1 JOY FM
Header image: Austin French [99.1 JOY FM]. YouTube, 1 January 2024, https://youtu.be/Q7bhGhyeMJA