A lesson learned and a bitter pill to swallow.

when I have forgiven you for all that you have done.

Two great people, male and female meet. Romance brings them even closer together. One is in college, the other in the military.

They loved each other and the romance was blossoming; call it two fools or teenagers in love. Their dating leads to pregnancies and because of out side pressure and influence these pregnancies are aborted.

The female suggest marriage and the male agrees. They approach their parents and their desires are met with disagreement.

After sometime, these two decide to follow their desires, so they take their first stance against their parents and proceed with a marriage. After some progress the parents decide to support the marriage.

There is a beautiful wedding and the two are off in life. After six months the wife suggests having a baby. The husband disagrees but after sometime and much encouragement he submits.

During the pregnancy the wife becomes seriously ill, so much so, she can no longer ride a bus. Now, for nine months the marriage has turned into taking care of the pregnant wife. The one auto now takes her to school instead of him to work…

The baby is born and one would think all the sickness and stress is gone. No! The wife chooses to give even more attention to the child. The romance suffers.

The husband starts feeling a bit confused, trapped and frustrated. The only reference he has, good or bad, is the females in his life and the two situations do not match. My mom had eight boys and could not afford to give all her attention to her children. She still had to work and do things to make ends meet. Just like my parents, I feel my wife should have continued her wifely duties. My feelings just wanted to explode inside and I did not know what to do.

One day while socializing he meets Ms. Affair. She does all those things his wife refuses to do. His wife finds out and kicks him further to the curve. Now, arguments start, become more heated and develop into physical altercations. She is not willing to give and neither is he. Long story short, they stay together for two more children and a move to Europe, where the third child is born.

Initially they thought the move would bring some healing to their already deteriorating marriage. They loved each other, well the husband did and still does, but the romance part of the relationship suffered. When they reconciled long enough to experiment more pregnancies resulted. More and more they blamed each other. The families got involved and the situation got even worse. The wife blamed the husband for cheating and being abusive and the husband blamed the wife for the same.

They discuss divorce and freedom of choice is there but the husband is saying, the children will stay with me, I love my children. I was willing to let go of my marriage but I was not willing to let go of my children.

One day the wife suggest a family vacation and the husband agrees, except he did not want to go but, he agrees for them to go.

The wife and children take off and she assures him that she will take care of a little family business while on vacation.

All goes according to plan. Phone calls are taking place and after approximately 30 days the husband starts to inquire about their return. The wife responds that the business she is taking care of is going to require a bit more time. That goes on until the wife finally admits that she is not coming back.

The husband demands she returns with their children or he will not support her efforts.

The wife files for legal separation, child support and a restraining order. The husband is feeling the greatest betrayal of all, is angry as hell, takes no action and says, it all will work out in the end.

Years go by, no communications other than legal requests for financial support.

After about five years the husband has a change in heart and attempts to communicate. He learns his wife has poisoned their children against him and has the support of her family. Further, the whole thing most likely was a ploy for the wife to leave without any problems in taking the children.

Today

30 odd years later the situation remains exactly the same. The wife and husband have long given up on their marriage. The wife and in-laws still blame the husband, think the husband owes them and I can only imagine, continue to imbed into the minds of the children how great they are and how dead beat their father is.

Now, my children are pretty much grown yet, remain estranged from their father because of hatred and revenge from their parents towards their father and how they were raised.

I pray now my children are of an age they realize my love for them was not a monetary thing. No matter past circumstances and hardships, when a family is divided the children suffer most.

Further, no matter how they were raised, they are the light of my life and I love them dearly and no person loves them more.

Blood is thicker than water and I know one day they will realize this.

Ezekiel 16

God’s Grace to Unfaithful Jerusalem

1 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

2 “Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations

3 and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem, “Your origin and your birth are from the land of the Canaanite, your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.

4 “As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths.

5 “No eye looked with pity on you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you. Rather you were thrown out into the open field, for you were abhorred on the day you were born.

6 “When I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’

7 “I made you numerous like plants of the field. Then you grew up, became tall and reached the age for fine ornaments; your breasts were formed and your hair had grown. Yet you were naked and bare.

8 "Then I passed by you and saw you, and behold, you were at the time for love; so I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness. I also swore to you and entered into a covenant with you so that you became Mine,” declares the Lord GOD.

9 “Then I bathed you with water, washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil.

10 “I also clothed you with embroidered cloth and put sandals of porpoise skin on your feet; and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk.

11 “I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands and a necklace around your neck.

12 “I also put a ring in your nostril, earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.

13 “Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your dress was of fine linen, silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey and oil; so you were exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty.

14 “Then your fame went forth among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect because of My splendor which I bestowed on you,” declares the Lord GOD.

15 “But you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot because of your fame, and you poured out your harlotries on every passer-by who might be willing.

16 “You took some of your clothes, made for yourself high places of various colors and played the harlot on them, which should never come about nor happen.

17 “You also took your beautiful jewels made of My gold and of My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images that you might play the harlot with them.

18 “Then you took your embroidered cloth and covered them, and offered My oil and My incense before them.

19 “Also My bread which I gave you, fine flour, oil and honey with which I fed you, you would offer before them for a soothing aroma; so it happened,” declares the Lord GOD.

20 “Moreover, you took your sons and daughters whom you had borne to Me and sacrificed them to idols to be devoured. Were your harlotries so small a matter?

21 “You slaughtered My children and offered them up to idols by causing them to pass through the fire.

22 “Besides all your abominations and harlotries you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare and squirming in your blood.

23 “Then it came about after all your wickedness (‘Woe, woe to you!’ declares the Lord GOD),

24 that you built yourself a shrine and made yourself a high place in every square.

25 “You built yourself a high place at the top of every street and made your beauty abominable, and you spread your legs to every passer-by to multiply your harlotry.

26 “You also played the harlot with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, and multiplied your harlotry to make Me angry.

27 “Behold now, I have stretched out My hand against you and diminished your rations. And I delivered you up to the desire of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your lewd conduct.

28 “Moreover, you played the harlot with the Assyrians because you were not satisfied; you played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied.

29 “You also multiplied your harlotry with the land of merchants, Chaldea, yet even with this you were not satisfied.”’”

30 “How languishing is your heart,” declares the Lord GOD, “while you do all these things, the actions of a bold-faced harlot.

31 “When you built your shrine at the beginning of every street and made your high place in every square, in disdaining money, you were not like a harlot.

32 “You adulteress wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband!

33 “Men give gifts to all harlots, but you give your gifts to all your lovers to bribe them to come to you from every direction for your harlotries.

34 “Thus you are different from those women in your harlotries, in that no one plays the harlot as you do, because you give money and no money is given you; thus you are different.”

35 Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD.

36 Thus says the Lord GOD, “Because your lewdness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered through your harlotries with your lovers and with all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your sons which you gave to idols,

37 therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, even all those whom you loved and all those whom you hated. So I will gather them against you from every direction and expose your nakedness to them that they may see all your nakedness.

38 “Thus I will judge you like women who commit adultery or shed blood are judged; and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy.

39 “I will also give you into the hands of your lovers, and they will tear down your shrines, demolish your high places, strip you of your clothing, take away your jewels, and will leave you naked and bare.

40 “They will incite a crowd against you and they will stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords.

41 “They will burn your houses with fire and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women. Then I will stop you from playing the harlot, and you will also no longer pay your lovers.

42 “So I will calm My fury against you and My jealousy will depart from you, and I will be pacified and angry no more.

43 “Because you have not remembered the days of your youth but have enraged Me by all these things, behold, I in turn will bring your conduct down on your own head,” declares the Lord GOD, “so that you will not commit this lewdness on top of all your other abominations.

44 “Behold, everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb concerning you, saying, ‘Like mother, like daughter.’

45 “You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and children. You are also the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. Exekiel 16

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