Day Six: Experiencing Something Hard

#6 What is the Hardest Thing You Have Ever Experienced?

Hands down, going through my parents divorce, when my Daddy left around the time I was just getting into my "womanhood" at age 15. I touched on this topic earlier this week, and honestly even discussing my parents divorce makes me kind of sad to think about it all over again. This was a family picture of us when I was just a baby and my brother was a toddler. Happy times, man! Not that I really think about my parents and the memories I have from childhood until the day my Dad left, as being bad at all. I never remember them arguing. I do remember my Mom saying she wished my Daddy would join us for functions like ball games and activities as a family more, and that all he wanted to do was stay home and watch tv. And my Dad would tell her he wished she wouldn't nag all the time, but those memories were from as I got older, and nearer to the time they divorced.

Things really came to a head when my brother started getting into trouble at school, partying and just being rebellious in highschool. My Mom was the strict one, while my Dad was the carefree one, advising my Mom that she should loosen her apron strings. At the time I didn't even know what that meant ha!, But they disagreed on discipline which in turn weakened their marriage even more.

We took a few family vacations that I remember, and I do love both of my parents very much. It was just a hard thing to understand, let alone go through at such a tender age. I can remember telling my Mom over and over how I just wish they had divorced when I was younger so that I wouldn't hurt as bad. But then again, now that I have better perspective on things, I don't think it would ever be an easier time, because had I been younger I would have always wondered what the memories would have been like with us as a family for years.

I just pray that this never happens to Scot and I. Not that two people ever get married, in hopes that it will happen. Marriage is hard. It's full of ups and downs, compromises, and goals, sacrifices and hard work and lots and lots of prayer. And if one person is willing to make it work, yet the other one has no desire to, it is only a matter of time before the marriage will dissolve. I know that my parents loved each other, at one point or another, and to see their marriage fail in the eyes of my impressionable age, I quickly learned that nothing is forever. So now that I have opened up about one of the hardest things to go through, I am learning that this is probably good therapy for me!

What was the hardest thing you've ever been through?