JOY Stories
Rene
A Relationship Renewed
When I was six years old, my mom, younger sisters and I moved in with her parents. My dad just wasn’t ready to be a dad. For the next 16 years I had no contact with him. I rarely thought about him until the teenage years arrived. Though he never called or visited, I longed to have a relationship with him and begged my mom to send me to live with him. But as is often the case with children, I was unaware of a lot of “grown up things” that were taking place. I did have a deep relationship with Jesus, and that helped me to overcome my sadness and anger over my dad’s absence. If Jesus could forgive me, then I needed to forgive my dad.
My dad’s sister, as well as his grandparents, kept in touch with us. On one of his rare phone calls to my aunt, she realized my dad lived within an hour of us. With much prompting, my dad called me. We reconnected and got to know one another over multiple phone calls, followed by an in person meeting. Our relationship grew over the next 12 years. We shared a love of baseball and the Atlanta Braves. He took my family to our first Braves game and for a few seasons, we attended many games together.
Following my youngest son's birth, my father moved away and severed contact with me once again. On Father’s Day 2011 my husband, son, and I attended a Braves game. Throughout the game I remembered all the games with my dad. A prayer spoken on The JOY FM that afternoon led me to search for - and find my dad! We were able to meet for dinner while at a Youth camp near his home and my son had met him for the first time. Since then, we have even been able to once again attend Braves games together.
I am thankful for our renewed relationship. While neither of us is perfect, the father/daughter relationship is important to me. I feel that everyone deserves to have someone who continues to love them and show them that Jesus loves them too. I hope that I have always shown him the importance of Jesus' forgiveness and the salvation He offers to us all.
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