Narcissism: A personal sidenote on dealing with my Dad.
On one hand; we can say that everyone apart from Christ is lost and a sinner and admittedly the end result is the same; albeit in the next life varying degrees of punishment are evident from several N.T. quotations by Christ. We are all; of course apart from Christ fixated on ourselves; but in this case a person doesn't show the "normal" signs of human love and affection. In this age it seems more commonplace than ever as a society at large; but in my Dad's case at 94 he has been characteristically consistent in the typical annoying traits. When he had a sense of humor he used to refer to one of his fellow workers as a very large African mammal; I'll leave it at that. Whether it is obsessing on a movie star he finds alluring and expects everyone to feel the same way; or expounds on his multidecade attempt to publish a book that despite giving to family and paying exorbitant expenses for promotion only about 8 copes were sold it is the same pattern. Complaints about the quality of a meal my mom slaved over were flung out without a care; criticizing one's appearance and lack of ambition; etc. are other things I remember.
This isn't a space for a personal diatribe but surely there are some out there who would appreciate knowing they aren't alone.
I want to share that in one of my fairly recent visits to his "Memory Care" facility when he asked how I was I said blessed because the Spirit was working through me noticeably at that time; something hard to focus on with his constant negativity about where he considers to be a "prison" that he is living. Part of it is his dementia; of course and logical explanation about his hallucinating hearing voices at night; to falling; confusion taking medications; soliciting all sorts of information on the phone and messing up his credit cards don't sway him.
I will have to do a part two. In short God has this situation in my life and yours to strengthen us.
On one hand; we can say that everyone apart from Christ is lost and a sinner and admittedly the end result is the same; albeit in the next life varying degrees of punishment are evident from several N.T. quotations by Christ. We are all; of course apart from Christ fixated on ourselves; but in this case a person doesn't show the "normal" signs of human love and affection. In this age it seems more commonplace than ever as a society at large; but in my Dad's case at 94 he has been characteristically consistent in the typical annoying traits. When he had a sense of humor he used to refer to one of his fellow workers as a very large African mammal; I'll leave it at that. Whether it is obsessing on a movie star he finds alluring and expects everyone to feel the same way; or expounds on his multidecade attempt to publish a book that despite giving to family and paying exorbitant expenses for promotion only about 8 copes were sold it is the same pattern. Complaints about the quality of a meal my mom slaved over were flung out without a care; criticizing one's appearance and lack of ambition; etc. are other things I remember.
This isn't a space for a personal diatribe but surely there are some out there who would appreciate knowing they aren't alone.
I want to share that in one of my fairly recent visits to his "Memory Care" facility when he asked how I was I said blessed because the Spirit was working through me noticeably at that time; something hard to focus on with his constant negativity about where he considers to be a "prison" that he is living. Part of it is his dementia; of course and logical explanation about his hallucinating hearing voices at night; to falling; confusion taking medications; soliciting all sorts of information on the phone and messing up his credit cards don't sway him.
I will have to do a part two. In short God has this situation in my life and yours to strengthen us.
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