A mother's cruelty

She hit me hard with a baseball bat and screamed, “Don’t you ever call me ‘mother’ again.” That was the low point of my life. I’m not sure which hurt worse, the physical blow or the emotional abandonment.

I had been born out of wedlock to a 15-year-old girl. At two years of age, she married a guy who stayed with her for three years. He left when he caught her in a lesbian relationship. The lady moved in with us. I saw them having sex and thought that was normal.

Mom didn’t work. Lived on welfare. If I wanted something I knew I had to work to get money. I got odd jobs from an early age. I’d bring the money home and mom would take most of it so she and her partner could buy drugs. Getting hit with the baseball bat was the time I didn’t bring home any money and mom was expecting me to. She would dole out food stamps to us three kids and tell us to go to different stores and buy a penny candy and get the change. She’d take the change from us for her drugs and sometimes she’d even take the candy. I don’t understand how someone could be so selfish.

We were poor. Sometimes we had to wash our clothes in the bathtub and dry them on top of the stove. I stayed away from home as much as possible. Playing sports in school was not only good training for me but it kept me out of the house longer. The last time she hit me I was in high school. She hit me on one side of the head and then the other. I stood there and took it (I was standing up for my sister.) She never touched me again.

Men from church provided me with a father image. They took some of us boys to Bible camp, church and boy’s club. I am eternally grateful to them.
Matthew 7:11 in the Bible says, “You earthly fathers love to give good gifts to your children, how much more your Heavenly Father wants to give good gifts to you.” Was my childhood a good gift from God? It didn’t feel like it. However, the good that has come out of it is:
1. I try real hard to be a good father because I know what it is like to be fatherless;
2. I’m sensitive to children who have no father at home and try to encourage them;
3. I’m a responsible worker and good money manager;
4. Family is very important to me;
5. The lack of a father has stimulated my appetite to seek God as my Father. I’m His child. I might not be a Christian if I hadn’t been brought up in that abusive environment. I’m grateful.
C.C.