Sunday, March 4, 2012

Prodigal Son … Prodigal Parent



          The title sounds like I am going to do a sermon. Set the bar low if that’s an expectation.
          In short, if you do not know me and do not follow my blog, I will quickly catch you up to speed so this will make sense:
          I am a single mom with 2 girls. I was married about 14 years and now I am not. Da baby daddy is not quite as involved as he was when we were married. He’s no longer the family man I once knew … or thought I knew.
I never expected divorce or any other thing to change how equally 110% involved we both were as parents. From the week to week, day to day standpoint … I do 90-95% solo. That’s how it feels to me. There have been many surges of resentment as to how I am now primarily responsible for what we entered together. Maybe it’s my insecurities and I would feel more confident in guiding the lives of 2 little humans with an ally, or maybe I am selfish and tired.
Regardless, it’s been this way for about 5 years now …

On with the catching up to speed … I am in a 6 month-ish long women’s weekly study group. A couple of months ago, the instructor read the parable from Luke (15: 11-32) about the prodigal son. Even though she changed the sons to daughters so we could identify better, the story didn’t seem to apply to me on a very personal level, yet … it did.
I mean, I got it, but now I GET IT.

The Cliff Notes/Spark Notes version of the Prodigal Son parable: