My chronicle of my feelings about n’s efforts to fight his boredom with drugs, gaming fantasies, heavy metal, anarchy, satanism and street life have been archived under the category heading of “Family & Life”. It has taken a life of its own and I have moved the posts to an archive sub-category called “Prodigal Son.”
The story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15.11-32)is a parable – a story told to make a point – about forgiveness and acceptance and spirituality. The spiritual lesson can be read in different ways. One of them is that God forgives the repentent sinner. That is the way the story has been retold in the famous song “Amazing Grace.” Another is that I should constantly forgive and constantly hope that he will recover.
The parable does not necessarily present a good psychological model of trust and boundaries in parenting, although in fact there is a significant boundary observed in the story. The son had taken his inheritance and spent it enjoying dissolute living in a far country, and came to a moment when he wanted to go home. At Luke 15:17, the story goes “But when he came to himself …”. I am challenged to trust myself to see when my son has come to himself and to find the right way to support him when he does.
Hi Tony, I followed a link over here – it’s so easy for me to get caught up in doing my own thing that I don’t pay enough attention to others.
I am very very sorry you are having such a hard time with your son. I have a 17 year-old son and he plays in a hard-core metal band and has a certain attitude but we get along very well (other than the usual teenage stuff) and he has remained active and school and such.
I got divorced 15 years ago (almost impossible to believe) and it almost killed me – I can’t imagine going through that and dealing with kid problems at the same time. Mine were only 5 and 2 at the time so that makes a difference.
Anyway, best wishes and I’ll be thinking about you. Thanks for the great work on Blogcritics. If it helps any, eventually I got over the divorce and got remarried and now we have two young children (to go with the 20 and 17 almost-adults). Have a great weekend.