Heritage: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

There were some things leading up to Anna’s and my younger siblings' dread of the “H word” that I must admit I, and the siblings closer to me in age, had quite a bit to do with. Well, I would like to delve further into the daily living of the Many Meadows and tell you the prequel to her story, and how at times family life just wasn’t pretty!

 

Backtrack to this one night in particular which was also one of our normal “family nights“ that were incorporated through most of our years growing up. After my Dad finished the long-winded droning of blah, blah blah that happened MANY a time when he had us all sitting down, he asked us what he had just talked about. We all looked at each other baffled. “Oh crap, he’s never asked this before after these blabberings. Usually it’s just,  "Do you get that?" - and we would of course say, "Yes.”

 

None of us could recall any of what he was saying, and our attempts at guessing were getting him pretty heated. Well, this is where it got a little ugly. We were ordered to bed somewhat angrily!!! At 7:30 in the evening!!! And the next day when we were called together to discuss this event, and after getting grounded and lectured up and down, he again attempted to get his point across. I don’t know if we all got the gist of what he was saying even at that time, but we knew it was about heritage. Hence the dread of the “H word” was born, and many a time we would (somewhat) jokingly roll our eyes at the start of a yammering by Dad and say, “Oh no!  The H word!”, as in Anna’s story.

 

I will also say that I have been witness to my perfect parents being somewhat “imperfect” and that has become one of the values of the Meadows’ heritage in itself. My parents did not seek to pass down a heritage of human perfection, but one of strong Godly character. This one story is just a small glimpse into how our life really was. There were disobedient children, selfish teens, and yes, sometimes angry, frustrated parents, but the way the bad and ugly were dealt with and not hidden instilled yet another part of our Godly heritage.

 

And what means so much to me now is that I "get" heritage! No, I didn’t listen very well to all those lectures, but my Dad didn’t give up! And it’s a lot better that I remember that my Dad cared enough to sit down and talk with us about life, even if I was annoyed and didn’t always get what he was saying, than that he was some passive Dad who watched TV or worked all the time.

 

So your family life might have more bad and ugly than good, but are you still aggressively seeking to pass down a Godly heritage to your children? If you aren’t, then who will?

 

Erin