Back Off!

I feel the need to electronically confess something that my wife, my daughters and their husbands know all too well: I meddle. Whether I guise it in what I think are discreet, gentle inquiries or just knock them over the head with blunt interference, meddling is meddling. My ego, springing only from the fact that I have lived longer than my grown children, falsely validates my "right" to "guide" them with my vast wisdom. Oops. After being rebuked for this over 15,000 times in the past six months (did I also mention that I struggle with hyperbole?), I am finally getting the message from God to SHUT UP and BACK OFF. Rachel, Michal, Christy, and Kenney: please forgive me. My intentions have always been honorable, but that is little to no consolation to you or excuse for me to intervene in your independence. God doesn't require my assistance to watch over you, and I am sure somehow you manage to get through your days without me there. I am painfully slow at times to learn lessons others never need learn. I think God must have an IEP for me in Heaven. For those unfamiliar with educational lingo, an IEP is an individualized education plan for students with learning issues. Filled with remorse and more than a little embarrassment, I will crawl off to my own little corner, lick some ego wounds, facing my learning issue and hopefully delete my meddling instinct and increase my prayer time for my family.