My Dad
Have you ever thought about what made your parents the way they were? Have you ever thought about what they had to overcome to be your parent?
It’s easy to focus on your parents screw-ups. I’m challenging you to think of their successes and what they had to go through to be better than their upbringing.
I’m starting this series because I want you to find healing and acceptance of the Father’s love and be set free from the woundedness of childhood.
My dad’s dad was an alcoholic. He tells a story of having to go down to the local bar where his dad was spending the week’s wages, knock his father out, drag his body into the car and bring him home. Yet, this wasn’t the worst of his stories, wait until I tell you about the icepick.
He mentioned stories like this in passing and even argued with me when I said his dad was an alcoholic. He was in denial. For some reason, he couldn’t face it. Maybe he simply didn’t want to dishonor their memory by putting that label on it. Others could see it; but, he couldn’t.
Mom was able to better understand him when she read the book about dealing with an adult child of an alcoholic.
We are marked by our childhood. Unless we choose to overcome it, it carries with us into adulthood. What challenges have you faced that made you who you are? Perhaps they have already been turned into your strengths; but, if not, i encourage you to look at them again and redefine your past. I am grateful for the challenges I faced in youth. They made me stronger. They made grateful.
As pertains to this story, I am grateful my father never became an alcoholic. Statistics said he should have been. He found Jesus in his adulthood; but, the enemy snatched that away pretty diabolically. Nevertheless, he stayed. He stayed when he could have left. He stayed sober when he had every reason to drink.
Thanks, dad.