DITW – Being Cruel will Never Be Kind – June 11, 2018
Been a while, of course, since I posted some of my reading thoughts. I am working on being more disciplined. In fact, it is part of the reason that I am choosing to post this particular reading, because it makes me quite vulnerable. The truth is, I am not the best father some days. I am not the most positive father to my children sometimes. It’s most obvious with my teenage daughter since she’s been around me the longest of all our kids, she’s saying things and doing things as a teenager that are not very positive. When I finally dig through it, she often says something to the effect of “Where do you think I learned it from?” and my heartbeat freezes for a minute because she’s probably right in some of those instances. I am learning that children can sometimes be a mirror of your best (and worst) traits, even if they are not your biological children. I have to hold my chest and think about what kind of people I am eventually going to release into the world and the reality is painful sometimes. In my reading, I came across these words in Proverbs: “Your kindness will reward you, but your cruelty will destroy you. Evil people get rich for the moment, but the reward of the godly will last.” (Proverbs: 11:17-18, NLT). So in the areas of my life where I am kind and teach kindness (I hope to be at least 30-45% of my life) it has some positive effect but when I am being cruel or uncaring towards my children (10% of the time depending on how you look at it), it is slowly eating away. I don’t want to produce evil people with riches, but to train my children in positive ways that will bring richness to the world around them. Unfortunately, I am not too good at this sometimes. But I have no choice but to do as much as possible to turn the tide. I may have 10-12 years with my youngest kids, but with my oldest I have 5-8 years and that’s scary. I hope my other father friends will keep this close to their heart as well,