Trusting in my Father's wise bestowment,
I've no cause for worry or for fear.
He, whose heart is kind beyond all measure,
Gives unto each day what He deems best...
Dear Dad,
I was listening to the hymn, Day by Day, on YouTube tonight. You don’t even know what You Tube is. They also have a God Tube, now, I hear. It’s really disturbing when the church imitates the world. It’s kind of like when people try to imitate art, when in fact art is suppose to imitate life.
Anyway, I was thinking about when I was a teenager, and how you didn’t want me to end up pregnant or mixed up in the wrong crowd. I met all the expectations you had for me in terms of purity. You did well convincing me that I would be worthless if I lost my virtue.
But, you know dad, I had the most startling thought tonight. It was about how I actually had to endure the wrong crowd as an adult, and I never even saw them coming. I just woke up one day and I found myself in the middle of someone else’s reunion, and my name was being written into someone else’s record. I miss you, dad, but I could have never, ever explained this to you. I wanted to spare you the disappointment of my disappointment.
Check out the amazing story behind the hymn, Day by Day, which "flowed out of the broken heart" of the writer, Lina Berg.
8 comments:
the greatest gift...
I really like "Day by Day"!
"God Tube"? You know, people mean well; their hearts are in the right place, but...sigh.
And now that we parent what lessons does one take forward ... the good and the bad ... how do we repeat the positive and leave the negative behind ... not so easy.
Practice, practice and love may just do it. Hugs to you dear one le xoxo
A really profound thought. We established boundaries but allowed space and now our young adult children are making pretty good choices. We feel blessed that we are on this end of parenting. I think for all parents..."we do the best with what we information or life experience we have." this reminder has helped me forgive some things I experienced growning up.
Thanks for posting at my place. I am from Oklahoma. I really enjoy your posts!
Wow, Jen! It sounds like we've had similar experiences growing up and becoming adults. My father stressed the same values for me and I was a good girl too, until, like you, the wrong crowd-types presented themselves while I was at university and I fell in with various miscreants (nothing too severe, you understand) and it was downhill for a while, but thanks to the faith instilled in me by my father at the beginning, I came out all right, am married and have a deep faith. Dads do a lot for us - we don't always recognize it at the time, but they really do.
Kat
p.s. new post at Gen-Xers
Beautifully written, Jen, very heartfelt.
Sometimes I think without taking a stroll - short one - down the wrong path and meeting the wrong folks we'd never appreciate the right ones in our life and how well they try and have tried to guide us.
Beautiful letter - thank you for sharing your heart here.
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