Parents

I was listening to a tape in my car a while back and something stuck in my mind, I think the tape was the reading of a book called "Being the best you can Be" by Joel Osteen, and in it he says everyone tries to blame their problems on someone else, and specifically on their parents, he goes on to say that 75% of all families today are dysfunctional, so we must get over it.......take responsibility for our own lives and get on with it...........................
In the last week i have read two very personal testamonies, of two woman, and the problems they had in their childhood, and it has made me look back at my own childhood. I must say i used to harbor "dark" feelings about my parents, but at a church service about 2 years ago, i wrote my anger down on a piece of paper, and set fire to it................. you have no idea who cleansing that was, the hate was gone and i felt better for it.
I was then able to look back at my childhood and find things to be grateful for, the fact that my parents taught me impeccible manners which i know has got me where i am today, the fact that they brought me to this land of sunshine, rugby and boerewors ( both of the latter i must admit i hate with a passion) away from the cold grey place i was born, that they settled in Impala Park instead of Bonaero Park, otherwise i would not have met all the people who were and still are such a big part of who i am.................. I would not have gone to Boksburg Commercial High and met my "bestest" friend in the whole world. I would not have started going to Church and met Christ, i would not have fallen in love with my friends brother, an unrequited love, but my first love never the less, I would not have................................. i have so much to thank my parents for...................... it is strange how when you replace your thoughts with good thoughts, how the "bad" stuff, the tears, the poverty, the drinking, the smoking just seem to belong to someone else's life..........................
Then i have to think of my own children, what have i done to them, what scars have i left on their lives, what horrors will they have to work to, to have good healthy relationships...................
I know what i have given them is hugs, and love and understanding, and friendship, and education and the love of books, and the love of nature, and the love of people and the love of giving................................and the love of Christ and the acceptance that all people are equal, maybe that is enough.....................................