I recently took a class called “How to Argue so Your Spouse Will Listen”. Although revised somewhat by our local church, the material was written by Dr. Sharon Morris May. It is a superb class with solid advice. During one portion of the class, I was asked to identify emotions that I felt as a child. The purpose of the exercise was to find any insecurities that may have originated during childhood, via my parents. There was a 23 item checklist of negative emotions that included some of the following 1) not seen, 2) no one will be there for me, 3) rejected, 4) not wanted or desired, 5) controlled, etc. Other people in my group were marking almost of the these negative emotions. I could not mark any, not even one.
Now, do not get me wrong. My parents will be the first to admit it. They were not perfect. In fact, they divorced when I was 18 years old. However, I have never, in my life, held any resentment towards them. They raised me the best way that they knew how. And I will always be grateful. I love you guys very much.
My Mom was fantastic. She kept the meals cooked and the house cleaned. In fact, everyday that I came home from school, she had something ready to eat. My Dad was great too. Even though he worked all the time while I was growing up, I never held it against him (in Eastern Kentucky, if you had a job at all, you felt lucky). He HAD to work all those hours. He worked so much, he asked my uncle to take me fishing one time. We went to the Dogwood Valley Pay Lake. We had a blast. As I got older, Dad’s work schedule got a little better. From 1986 until about 2008, Dad and I hunted together every deer season. I started hunting with my son in 2009 or Dad and I would still be hunting together.
I could write for days about my parents, but I want to be sensitive to people who did not have good parents. There are plenty of bad parents out there. Actually, I think there should be an application process to have a kid…… You know, the Bible promises us a just, loving, and wonderful heavenly father. I understand that, for some people, this is a hollow promise. Maybe your father was so bad that you do not want any part of another father. If that is true, I am very sorry. I know what it is like to have a good earthly father, and I can only imagine what my heavenly father is like.
Hold onto the hope of wonderful heavenly father, it will be worth the wait. In fact, I will discuss attributes of our heavenly father in my next post.
Oh my! You just keep on going. Loved the post. What a tribute to your parents and a promise to your son thanks for sharing
Thank you. Couldn’t do it without your all’s support.
If hearts could smile, mine would be grinning from ear to ear.{I’m Kenny’s mother] I’ve always felt like Kenny’s dad and I let our children down when we divorced, however my son has always been quick to tell me otherwise. We’ve always loved our children and both of us are extremely proud of the people they have become, all their accomplishments, the greatest is them accepting Christ as their Savior!