A Father Has to Apologize

So, God laid on my heart that I needed to give a real apology to Social Hurricane.

A lot of the troubles started a few years ago when her bipolar disorder was first kicking in.  We didn't know what was happening at the time; we thought she was just going through an exceptionally rebellious period.

And we had one bad night--she went for a walk, and walked for hours.  That's very common with bipolar--sometimes you just have to get out and move.  We found her bed empty, called around to her friends, called the police, the whole nine yards.  We were panicking, let's give us that.

And, when she did check in, I blew up at her.

That was a bad idea.  Granted her actions weren't well thought out, but she was confused and her brain was betraying her and she wasn't thinking clearly.  All she knew was that she had to get out.  Plus, she was the teenager and I was the mature, wise, middle-aged father.  What I should have done was try to listen, try to understand.  I shouldn't have let my anger get the better of me.  She didn't mean any harm.  She didn't mean to worry us.

And rather than help the situation, I drove her away.  Maybe if I'd reacted with a little more compassion, things would have turned out a lot differently.  It was the start of a very difficult time in our family life.

So the other night I had a long talk with her, and I apologized, and asked her to forgive me.  And she was very gracious about it, and told me she did forgive me.  And then we got a soda and talked about superheroes and went for a walk.

Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.