17 November 2009

Never let the water run

There was a period when my daughter was quite little that we watched Barney. My son, being only two years older, appreciated Barney more than she did. I figured it was my parental obligation to not bash the inane songs and goofy dancing segments. As a child, I had sometimes watched Sesame Street and Electric Company, so my kids should have the same time-wasting opportunity. However, I drew the line at Teletubbies, the brain-numbing creatures I consider children's slap-stick.

In the short time we allowed Barney to infiltrate our home, I remember a few of the songs he sang. One was "Clean up, clean up, everybody, everywhere..." And, another about brushing teeth that instructed children, in an attempt to save the planet, to "Never let the water run."

Branded into my brain are both tunes and they pop up in the weirdest places.

Yesterday a cousin confided in me that she is getting a divorce. I was totally caught off-guard. They have been married about 25 years and have four kids.

During her story, all I could hear in my head was the Barney tune, but the lyrics were not about brushing teeth. Instead, permeating the strange workings of my mind, was the tooth-brushing melody, but the lyrics were, "Never let the devil in."

More background. This cousin's parents had been married forever. She is one of eight children. All were raised Catholic and attended Catholic grade school. All eight have been married. Seven of the eight are divorced, some multiple times.

This is nearly an 88% divorce rate in one family. Higher if you count the multiple marriages.

The youngest of the family is only recently married, so pray she escapes the odds.

Everyone has free will, but the poor choices of parents dramatically affect their children. Behind the scenes of this family was abuse, alcoholism, and probably other things that aren't known beyond their front door. The dysfunction of the parents cascades down through the family.

Never let the devil in.

6 comments:

Be Thou My Vision said...

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I also read some of your
posts and I find it very helpful.

Charlotte said...

True!

Anonymous said...

Sadly the fact that parents can destroy their kids futures is true. I wish parents would really really think about this.
But sadly no matter how hard a parent works to try and not let the family 'curse' (whatever it might be) effect their children- some go down.

swissmiss said...

Thank for the comments everyone! My parents left me many good things to emulate. I am very blessed. But, there are days when those thoughts of "I'm becoming my mother" are not pleasant!

Anonymous said...

I have a cousin who suffered the same misapprehensions as the Scribes and Pharisees did in John 8:3. Her wrong thinking about her own father was so deep that none of her other cousins had the heart to tell her the truth about what kind of man he really was. This cousin had a misplaced sense of her own righteousness and the righteousness of her father. If only the two of them had been standing there to see what Jesus may have been writing in the sand about the secret sins of the Pharisees. The edict he decreed over 2000 years ago rings just as true for us this very day. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

Word of Wisdom for the Day:
Peirazo is a word to describe the kind of test which determines which way one is going and the kind of character a person really has. In this incident, the Pharisees sought to test Jesus to see what He might say of the adulteress so they might have something to accuse Him of.
Satan is the Accuser of the Brethren.
God does not allow trials to see if we will fail. He allows trials to strengthen our faith.

Anonymous said...

I think you are a bunch of pious ANTI CHRISTIANS. Have you offered to help her rather than sit back and judge her? I am guessing... NO! I think your family is a big dysfunctional mess and you judge her in hopes of taking attention away from the "log in your on eye". What small person you are. Read your BIBLE.