"An Orphan in the House of God" show us the way out of the orphanage, and into the arms of our loving Father. "
Motivation to write “AN ORPHAN IN THE HOUSE OF GOD”
I knew something was wrong inside. I’d grown tired of what passed for a relationship with God. I knew I was a Christian…I knew I was born again, but it didn’t feel like I was His child. A series of events started me down the road of considering whether I even knew what it was to be a child at all. I started writing on January 22, 2022 as just a means of getting all this stuff out. My friend Rick Elias, the Christian singer, used to say that songwriting was like prayer for him…it was sacred. For me, writing is the same way. I was writing it out on the page, but I was praying and probing at the same time. It wasn’t long before I realized it would become a book. It took ten months, and God worked on me and healed my wounds as I wrote. In fact, He distinctly told me He would only heal me as I wrote. I had to see the project through.
What can churches do to help children growing up in abusive homes?
I think the church needs to really understand that not everything is as it appears on the surface, especially with young people. Craig Daliessio Tweet …
Craig Talks about being Homeless
That is a long story, but the gist of it is, I was in the mortgage industry and very successful at it. I owned a wonderful little home in the country in Tennessee. I went through a divorce in 1999 and never remarried. My daughter was only 18 months old when we divorced, and I just wanted to focus on being her dad. I was worried about the effects of divorce on her.
How do you trust God in the midst of pain and heartache?
When I went through a soul-crushing divorce, I looked for some resources for divorced men, written from a Christian perspective, but I just couldn’t find much. Divorced men are relegated to the desert in the church. I knew in my soul that I was in for a hard road, and I also knew that if I didn’t purposefully run TO God, I would run from Him. There would be no middle ground.
How do you forgive abusive parents?
I want people who lived through abusive childhoods to know that it is possible to forgive. That doesn’t mean restoration is required. Some people remain dangerous to us, and we have to set limits and boundaries. But they can still be forgiven. It also doesn’t mean you forget.
What should adults from abusive childhoods know about God?
I wish they knew how much God really loves them. I mean REALLY loves them. I wish they knew that He placed a star in the sky that awaited their birth. I explain that in the book. I wish they knew that He smiles at them. He laughs at their silly jokes. He saw them hit that home run in fifth grade when their parents weren’t in the stands. He caught their tears when they didn’t get asked to dance at the prom. He was proud of them when they graduated college against all odds.
