I really am thankful for the experiences I have had, those that were good and not so good. These experiences have shaped me, made me who I am, good and not so good! I have thoughts, very passionate thoughts on many issues due to the things I have experienced. One of those is divorce. I hate divorce, I am a product of divorce, I have such disdain for the process, I have no doubt I will not change my thought process on this but I do understand it. Doesn't mean I like it, I hate it, but I already said that. It's how I feel due to my own personal experience. I'm sure you have your own life shaping experiences. And even with the negative experience I have in regards to divorce it has made me have a determination to not experience one in my own marriage.
Another one for me is the military. I love the military and all that it means, and trust me I GET IT, what it truly means. After 25 years of being married to the military I'm pretty sure I can speak to the military lifestyle as far as from a spouses perspective. Those who have never served, or been impacted by someone who has served just cannot grasp this in my opinion. And since less then 1% of our nation's population chooses to serve there are many who do not get the concept of the military. This is through no fault of their own, however, I do wish more people would realize this is a great sacrifice and not take their freedom for granted. Still I love our military experiences and would not want to have it any other way!
I am also thankful I have had the honor of being a parent. It has not been easy, in fact it's been downright tough on many a day, we have had our portion of trials; we are not perfect parents, we did not have a a perfect child. The teen years nearly killed us, not to mention the couple years leading up to those teen years. However, God sustained us and here we are with a full blown legal to vote nearly legal to buy booze child. Scary isn't it? I know getting through the teen years was challenging and MiB and I never took on the parenting style of being your child's friend. In fact, we were the ones who were probably more involved and more accountability then most of our child's peers parents. LilBlue had a tough road, we did not allow her to roam free, we mandated check ins, calling in for change of plans, meeting dates before dates, chaperoned events, etc. Even with all this we still experienced some lying issues, a little rebellion, a lot of attitude, oh my, I'm thankful those days are behind us. However, I am also thankful we did not have a teen pregnancy, we did not have illegal drug use, alcohol incidents or trouble with the law. We have much to be thankful for and I would not trade the parenting experiences we have had though I would do some things differently given the opportunity.
So those are are just a few of the experiences I have had that have made me who I am...there are many, many more but I am going to leave it at this...it's supper time and I am ready to sit down and enjoy a quite evening at home. MiB will be along shortly after a little ice breaker social for his conference this week. One nice thing is that it is a local conference so he will be home each night :)
No comments:
Post a Comment