For the first time tonight in years of confusion and seeking, I believe God has given me access to a glimpse into what he’s been setting up for me all along. I wrote as my last chapter that I wish I could go back to age 17 with all of the wisdom that I have learned. And it’s been evident to me for years that this wish was granted to me in ways I can’t even explain. I noticed after Covid it seemed I had entered a time machine. But I thought I was playing the parts of a relationship that I had with my children’s father.
D seemed like his clone in so many ways – from the way I felt about him to the way he did the push – pull and made me feel like I was caught in a merry-go-round. He would want me then push me away and do it over and over, all the while telling me I should have better than him, he’s emotionally unavailable and he never wants a relationship, kids and marriage.
I didn’t understand why God would want me to go through that dynamic again exactly as I had done as a child. But then I started noticing the similarities to Dave and me with my mother and Jim. It’s like a storybook plot the way she met him and he seemingly took over her character. She says he was the love of his life and so she sailed off into the sunset with him and put me in the trash as baggage that wouldn’t have made her happily ever after possible. She says, “He gave your husband jobs and we helped you more than anyone.” But what she doesn’t realize is what I needed most was to feel loved and accepted – to not feel that I had lost my mother to someone else’s family. In the car yesterday when I mentioned that she was laboring her health away for his son she got very triggered and snapped back, “Of course! That’s what I’m supposed to do that’s my family!” I knew she didn’t even notice as the words left her mouth that she hadn’t considered for a moment how differently she and her husband treat me and his kids. When they come to her house she bends over backwards to prepare for them and to impress him. It’s as if she’s been fighting her entire adult life to be accepted by them as she wears their guilt for being the woman who married their dad and caused their mother so much pain and misery.
She took care of Jim’s elderly mom when she had dementia. All of his children were placed in top notch colleges and given educations and today they live in Houston and both of them spend every waking moment slaving to make their business a success as their health diminishes more each day and I’ve seen the way my mother jumps out of her chair when his son calls. She’s like a slave answering to the master – hoping that she’s loved, accepted and her hard work is appreciated by him – the husband’s kid.
Meanwhile I’m lucky to get a phone call once a month and when I do speak to her she just tells me how miserable she is and throws up all her problems on me. She doesn’t want my love, affection, approval and she’s told me more than a dozen times that I’m not her daughter, I’m an embarrassment to her bloodline, I’m the illegitimate kid that could ruin Jim’s reputation if his shareholders found out about me. She doesn’t want to deal with me and she’s certainly not interested in claiming me as something she’s proud of in this life and I’m convinced that this will never change. So why now must I be shown this so heavily in my face – reliving the pain over and over as if I’m predestined to suffer and suffer more until I get the lesson? My children.
I was the same age as Josh when my mom got pregnant with Tori and though it’s not the same scenario as my ex-husband having a stroke it sure feels like the same story. My older child was forced to go at it alone and find her way into fast independence as I rode off into the sunset chasing after love. Meanwhile my younger child got left with the half-dad who had suffered a brain injury. Very much like the temperament of Roger he’s not tough. Roger drank a lot and chased after any woman who would show him love – even willing to give up his own child if the woman demanded. My son has felt that pain of rejection over and over from his dad. Meanwhile my son’s mom has been absent – working in a traveling job and hardly around. I’ve been too busy to love him the way he’s needed.
So how do I hit pause on this movie and rewrite the script here and now? How do I not turn into my mother?
First and foremost I have to see Dave through the lenses that I saw my mother’s new love. He changed her and took her away and I wanted her to be happy. I was very happy for her. But he never saw me as his daughter and didn’t want me in their life and I felt it with every fiber of my being. She chose him and his family over me. She threw me out like I didn’t exist or matter. That means Dave has to either become the man who wants to love my children as if they’re part of me because they are, or he is not the man who belongs in my life going forward. I must be firm on this and know that God will absolutely send another story-line if I reject this one and say no to repeats of my mom’s mistakes.
The man that can earn my heart must be willing and able to earn the heart of my children too and he doesn’t try to make an effort to see them as the gatekeepers of me – the woman he’s willing to walk across the dessert to love then he doesn’t belong in my life and certainly not in my bed.
Secondly, I have to put these kids back on the pedestal of my own heart. I may not have all the answers and I may not know when or how God will open a door to move in my favor to give me a better job and a home but I must hold out for it and pray for it and believe then why I say no to the partial things he will send me the whole package.
I want better for my children. They deserve better than what I received. And today as I find myself inside of a script I’ve already seen, I am boldly asking the director to rewrite it. I want the best outcome not the crumbs. I want my prince in shining armor who walks the walk of James 1:27 – ready to be a father to the fatherless, defender of the widow and a redeemer of my bloodline.
Ok….. I know what I have to do. No more crying over the counterfeit. I’m done with him.
Thank you Lord for the heartbreaking but eye opening revelation and please give me the strength to walk away from this and welcome in the better portion – in Jesus’ name amen.