Читать книгу Above and Beyond - J.S. Dorian - Страница 75

“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”

PSALMS 51:10

You can’t remember the last time you had a meaningful conversation with your father. Your relationship with him has been severely strained for, what, ten years now? Even at family get-togethers you greet each other with barely discernible nods.

Now you are gravely ill. The cancer is very aggressive; you know it, and everyone else in the family does too. And for the first time in years your father is trying to reach out to you. To be completely honest, you have a tormenting ambivalence about the situation. You’re ashamed of the side of you that wants to go on hating him; and you wish you could nurture the side that wants to rebuild the relationship.

So you try to put yourself in your father’s shoes. How heart-wrenching it must be for him to stand by powerlessly as you are being dragged down by this catastrophic illness. And because the relationship is dysfunctional, his emotional pain must be all the more intense.

It’s clear now that you can’t run away and you can’t let it slide by. That’s not who you are or the way you choose to live. So you do your very best to appreciate his concern and accept his love and, at the same time, to be kind and loving to him.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

The loving way is the right way.