responding biblically to childhood abuse on this edition of Truth and Love.

I'm Dale Johnson and you're listening to Truth in Love, a podcast of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors,

where we seek to provide biblical solutions for the problems that people face.

And today on the podcast I have with me, Josh Zichick. He's a graduate twice of the Master's University with a bachelor's degree and master's degree in biblical counseling.

He served as a youth pastor and a church planner. He's currently serving his local church as a certified member of ACBC, which I am grateful for. Man, I've loved getting to know Josh had an opportunity to meet his wife Harmony as well. They love working with students at their local church. And they have three kiddos, Jackson, Charles, and one is on the way. And Josh, I'm just

really excited that the Lord has kindled our friendship, and you're actually a student here at

Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and I'm excited about the work that you're doing.

In fact, we're going to talk about some of that work even today. And so you've written a little

booklet that I want to be the focus of our time

today. And the booklet is called Help. My parents abused me when I was a kid and it was done by

Shepard's Press put out as a part of their Lifeline booklet series. We'll have that in the show

notes. But I want us to have a discussion. It's always good to hear from the author. Sometimes

in writing as someone who's trying to write a book even now. You don't feel like

you can always explain in detail your thoughts, and I just want to give him an opportunity

to talk through this. And this is a sensitive subject. We're very aware that this is a very,

very sensitive subject on childhood abuse. So, Josh, let's just start if we can by thinking through

this particular question. How do you know when there's childhood abuse or what are some of

the indicators that help us to see that there might be some issues or problem going on?

Yeah, I think abuse is a tough word. It's a tough word to define. It's a tough word to use. It's a general word. It explains something that is kind of overarching. And truthfully, you can start to ask specific questions. There are people who don't know they're being abused. They presume the best of their

parents. They wouldn't label everything as abuse. They wouldn't have said, oh, my childhood was

abusive. My upbringing was abusive. And there's others who would label it very quickly abuse.

I think it's better to actually get away from the word. I use it in the title of this book because

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