Parenting Help from The Father

Dear Lord; Good afternoon Father.

I’ve decided that 11 is a complicated age Lord…  Let me tell You a little about my morning.

Today started out like most weekday mornings do; with everyone scrambling to compose themselves and prepare for the work and school day ahead.  Still shaking off the effects of a restless night, I stepped out of the shower and immediately picked up on yelling coming from the opposite side of the house.  Quickly wrapping a towel around myself I headed for the source of the turmoil.

Jonathan and Aidan were firmly entrenched in a verbal battle with each other.  Apparently, Aidan had taken a seat at the table that Jonathan had set up for himself, pushing his things aside in the process.  This in turn lit Jonathan’s fuse, and the battle royale had begun.

Both were intractable, and it had progressed from a basic disagreement to an angered exchange complete with name calling (luckily, nothing too terrible) and yelling.  (Looking back to it now, Dr. Seuss’ story “The Zax” comes to mind.)

Still sporting my towel, I quickly intervened on the situation trying to get a handle on who did what and to calm things down.  Unfortunately, Jonathan was riled up way past the point of reason and redirected his attitude towards my authority.  Needless to say, it went downhill from there.  Shannon and I take disrespect very seriously, and Jonathan had gone WAY too far to allow it to go unchecked.

“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.” – Exodus 20:12

We then entered the correction phase of the conversation; No computer games for the next couple of days… At which time, Jonathan went off the deep end.

I’ve never seen anger like this from him Father, and it really caught Shannon and I off guard.  He threw what can only be described as a massive “hissy fit”, told us he was leaving home forever, and without a coat, hat or gloves stormed out the front door onto the snow covered lawn.

I watched quietly out the window for a couple minutes, then went outside and got in the truck to go fetch him.  He’d made it down to the end of the street, and when I pulled up on him he stood shivering in the snow and firmly refused to get in the car.  More concerned for his health than the attitude at this point, I promptly picked him up, put him in the truck and closed the door.  Unfortunately, that still wasn’t the end of it and the ride to school was filled with further venomous outbursts and disrespect.  As it hadn’t completely abated when we turned into the school parking lot, I decided to err on the side of caution and keep him with me for the day.

As we pulled out of the school after dropping Aidan off, I quietly focused on Your Guidance Father.  I was at a loss… He’d never shown me this kind of behavior before.

“Hold him close to you.” I heard drift through my head.

With that directive in my heart and an image of You holding him in Your Arms in my mind, I spent the rest of the trip to my office working to release some of the tension that the morning had brought.  We arrived at my workplace, where I set him down on the couch in my office to contemplate the events of the morning.

“Jonathan” I said, “You tell me you talk to God quite a bit… Now would be a good time to listen to Him.”

He gave me a half-quizzical look, but sat quietly on the couch for quite a long time all the same.  When he finally turned and spoke to me, his voice was much softer and more reserved.  We discussed what had happened, and he remorsefully explained how he’d allowed his anger to run away with him and about the difficulty he’d had “getting the genie back in the bottle” once he’d lost control.  There are days Father, that I think he’s far too deep for a child of 11… Today was one of those days.

When I spoke with him later on, I asked him if he’d heard from You while he laid on my couch.

“Yes… And he didn’t sound happy.” Jonathan replied.  “We talked about how I was going to make it better, and not let it happen again.”

Thank You for the assist with him Father, and for focusing me as well.  Sometimes we all need some parenting help from the “Head of the Household”.  🙂

Amen.

~Phather Phil