The Lost Sheep

Jesus's parable of the Lost Sheep is one that can readily apply to Inner Child Work. When we hear Jesus speaking in the Gospels he often tells parables about people and their relationship with others. But we can also think of these parables in reference to our inner world. Who are the lost sheep in us that need our shepherding? What parts of us are lost to our awareness?

Our inner parts are like sheep, and it is our responsibility as the shepherd to find whatever sheep may be lost and bring them back into the fold. And not just inner parts, but the expressions of such parts, such as anger, grief, depression, anxiety, stress, or loneliness. When these feelings are lost to us, it is us who feels lost and who acts from that lostness.

So how do we reclaim these inner sheep? We recognize when they are activated (when they bleat per say), feeling the emotional expressions of them in our body and hearing the mental expressions of them in our thoughts. We learn to be curious about them rather than judgemental and seek to understand them rather than push them away. We learn to embrace what feels intolerable and accept what was “unacceptable.” In this way we become the shepherd our lost sheep truly need.