(Father)

My child, my daughter, how I care for you. I teach you what is right because I love you. I tell you what is helpful because I care for you. As you grow, you will make your own choices.

Will you decide to do what is right, or will you choose what is wrong? For now, I will teach you what is right and when you are older, you will decide which way you will go.

(Daughter)

He’s always telling me what to do. He thinks his ways are best. I don’t know if I trust his ways. To me they seem too difficult to keep. And it seems as if no one around me is living the way he’s asking me to live, so why should I? Does he want me to have no fun? Does he want me to be miserable? He doesn’t understand me.

(Father)

I see the temptation to focus solely on what is forbidden and by so doing, ignoring all that has been given for her enjoyment. Why not instead, focus on what is given and find enjoyment?

And why does she challenge my ways? She is so young, and knows so little, and yet she persists in her own way. Can she see into the future? Does she understand what lies ahead? Does she have the end in mind? My ways lead to life, and my teachings are a literal path for her feet to walk in. Her disobedience will lead her to make many bad choices, which in the end will produce problems that she was never meant to bear. How painful it is to watch. How unbearable it is to love an unruly child.

Love,

-WUL-