Walk A Little Straigher Daddy...

For some many months I have been able to relate to the song Walk A Little Straighter by Billy Currington. Growing up in home where my number one enemy was my dad's bottle of booze was nothing less than hellish. Last week I did a wrap up at one of my clubs on alcohol. I asked my students to be completely silent and I began to read a list of words "Hurt, Anger, Abuse, Alone, Hate, Wish For Divorce, Sleepless Nights, Yelling, Fighting..." I then went onto explain how those words were all things that I felt or went through while dealing with an alcoholic father. I continued to share the effects alcohol has not only on the person who uses but on those who are around the person. I tried my hardest to hold back the tears and the pictures of my childhood flashed before my eyes. After the wrap up one of my students came up to me and said "I am living your life, my dad is just like your dad". WOW! I was not expecting this.

Today I had the opportunity to sit down with my student for almost two hours and talk to him about the hurt he is feeling and about how alcohol is tearing his family apart. It was crazy how many similarities there were in our stories, our experiences, or families. I knew the trends were common in alcoholic homes but I never realized that I am not alone in what goes on. As I sat sharing, I expressed to him that we can't blame ourselves for this. It is not our faults, we did not ask for this. And we both wanted to deeply to just hear our parents say "I am sorry". But there is a chance that won't happen, we must learn to forgive our parents for the hurt and anger without ever hearing them say they are sorry. We must learn to be at peace with our lives and rest in the arms of the one Father who will always love us and who will never hurt us, our Lord and Savior.

More and more as I review my life and things I have been through as I relate them to the students I work with, the more and more I want to write a book. I am praying that one day I will have the time, energy, and resources to be able to write a book that can hopefully help hurting teenagers in this world.

Good night and God bless.
DA