HDIF about our children and our relationship with them? DYFF.

Dear LORD:

Thank you for our children. Help us to be good parents of these wonderful people. They are all very precious to me and to you. Amen!

Dearest Ruth:

It's kind of early, so you have yet to do much today. However, you have already racked up a couple of MEQs:

1. You made oatmeal.
2. You loved it when I touched you. (I love touching you.)
3. You wanted to dialog. (It's the first time we have ever dialoged this early!)

Pretty impressive!

The way I feel about our children varies with the child. I will take each in turn:

Samuel:

My strongest feeling about Sam is concern. I am also frustrated, annoyed, and a bit pissed off with Sam. I tend to behave in a passive aggressive manner towards him.

Sam is choosing to live a dysfunctional, self-destructive life. He was not raised that way. He knows better. We were not perfect parents, for sure, but we have done a reasonably good job of setting a better example than that.

I think that Sam needs to get his shit together. My desire to help him is fairly low, since he is not doing much for himself. He has also been a negative influence on the other two children.

Jon:

My strongest feeling about Jon is hopeful. I also am concerned for him, but less so than Sam. He seems to be getting his act together. Jon is a lot of fun. I enjoy being with him much more than Sam at this point.

Jon made a big step by coming home again. He wanted to get away from the destructive, dysfunctional behaviors of his brother. This is a very encouraging step for him.

My desire to help Jon is very strong. I want to support him in getting his life back on track.

Jeanae:


My strongest feeling about Jeanae is love. I enjoy being with her. I am a bit concerned for her as well. She has hit an emotional and spiritual speed bump. However, as I told her recently, teenage angst is simply something we all have to go through. I do not intend to save her from that. She is creating a lot of drama. Sometimes she can be very challenging. Still, she loves you and me, and I love her very much.

I need for her to do well in school, get herself educated, and go on with her life. I am looking forward to her becoming an adult. It will be very nice when it is just you and me again. Eventually, grandchildren would be nice.

On a whole, I enjoy my children but would love to see more of you, and would not mind if they became independent at all. My feelings toward you are very, very strong. I enjoy being with you more than the children, much as I love them. I doubt very seriously that I will have much of an empty nest syndrome when the leave.

With the possible exception of Jeanae. It will be a wrench watching her move out. I doubt that will happen before she gets married, though. So no worries.

In the meantime, I am enjoying being a father of young adults and teenagers (other than Sam), and find this phase of life to be very satisfying.

I will miss you today. I loved sleeping with you last night. You are my poonie!

Love,
Me