Hi, I am Kathy Matthews and this is Thinking 00:00:31.28\00:00:33.48 About Home, and I am glad to see that you are back 00:00:33.51\00:00:35.81 with us again. We've been discussing divorce 00:00:35.84\00:00:38.79 and divorce recovery, and how the spouses can 00:00:38.82\00:00:43.32 handle all of these problems that they go through. 00:00:43.35\00:00:46.36 One of the things that we've been discussing is the 00:00:46.39\00:00:49.34 experience of divorce from a spouse's perspective. 00:00:49.37\00:00:52.12 And the guest that we have again is 00:00:53.06\00:00:55.08 Dr. David Scdlacck from Weimar Institute. 00:00:55.11\00:00:57.32 Dr Scdlacck, thank you for being back again. 00:00:57.93\00:00:59.70 You are so welcome. Now we've talked about 00:00:59.73\00:01:02.48 emotional divorce and we've talked about legal 00:01:02.51\00:01:05.42 divorce and economic divorce, there's other kinds 00:01:05.45\00:01:08.97 of divorce like co-parental divorce and what happens 00:01:09.00\00:01:12.29 to the mind when you're divorced. 00:01:12.32\00:01:13.75 That's right, that's right. Why don't you help us 00:01:13.78\00:01:16.51 understand those. Well co-parental divorce means 00:01:16.54\00:01:20.68 that even though you're divorced from one 00:01:20.71\00:01:22.98 and another, neither of you are divorced from 00:01:23.01\00:01:26.01 the children. The children are going to be there, 00:01:26.04\00:01:28.91 you are going to be need to be actively involved 00:01:28.94\00:01:30.72 in their lives until forever. And so there is going 00:01:30.75\00:01:35.82 to be if you will still a common bond. 00:01:35.85\00:01:38.57 They are going to be needs for you to still talk 00:01:39.24\00:01:41.01 with one another to resolve issues. Yes. 00:01:41.04\00:01:43.30 That relate to the children, and so that reality means 00:01:43.33\00:01:50.07 you can't run still from some type of relationship 00:01:50.10\00:01:53.04 with the person you have divorced. Right. 00:01:53.07\00:01:55.60 And so even though that's painful and it might 00:01:56.63\00:02:01.63 be something, might be the last thing you want to do. 00:02:01.66\00:02:03.95 It's something that you need to face and deal 00:02:05.04\00:02:07.44 with as a part of your new reality as a single person. 00:02:07.47\00:02:11.83 Maturing and growing. That's right maturing and 00:02:12.76\00:02:15.41 growing. The next one that I want to talk about 00:02:15.44\00:02:18.61 is what we call community divorce. And in this one, 00:02:18.64\00:02:22.24 it's like this we've been a part of the same community, 00:02:23.82\00:02:28.50 can we still do that? Can we still go to the same 00:02:30.23\00:02:33.75 church together? Can we still go to the same functions 00:02:33.78\00:02:37.03 together? Can we still have the same friends? 00:02:37.06\00:02:39.64 Can we be a part of the same community? 00:02:40.37\00:02:43.25 Those are difficult questions and sometimes very 00:02:44.28\00:02:48.79 painful questions. And sometimes we can't, right. 00:02:48.82\00:02:52.01 We can't be a part of it, it seems like. 00:02:52.04\00:02:54.05 We can't but when we try to force it then we create 00:02:54.08\00:02:59.05 a whole new set of problems. I know 00:02:59.08\00:03:01.64 one fellow whose mother ran off with the pastor 00:03:01.67\00:03:08.66 of his church, whose father married another woman 00:03:08.69\00:03:12.51 in the church and for a while they went their 00:03:12.54\00:03:15.86 separate ways, but now they're all back in the same 00:03:15.89\00:03:19.45 tiny little church. And it's creating all kinds of 00:03:19.48\00:03:24.63 problems because there are unresolved issues that 00:03:24.66\00:03:26.98 have never been addressed and never been 00:03:27.01\00:03:28.31 discussed and now they are having to try to live 00:03:28.34\00:03:31.54 together and obviously creates a tremendous 00:03:31.57\00:03:33.90 amount of strain on their whole community system. 00:03:33.93\00:03:36.50 So that is an aspect that needs to be really looked 00:03:37.84\00:03:41.04 at carefully. And the final area in terms of divorce 00:03:41.07\00:03:45.57 if we wanna look at is what we call psychic divorce 00:03:45.60\00:03:48.04 and that is my thoughts, my process has been intimately 00:03:48.07\00:03:54.75 involved with this person and now it's not going 00:03:54.78\00:04:00.04 to be involved in that person with that person anymore. 00:04:00.07\00:04:02.93 Who am I, alone now as an individual? 00:04:03.99\00:04:07.06 What are my thoughts now as an individual, 00:04:08.56\00:04:11.48 what will I do with adjustment to life and 00:04:13.04\00:04:16.12 typically women struggle with this adjustment more 00:04:16.15\00:04:19.03 than men do? Men tend to go on about their business 00:04:19.06\00:04:24.12 and not address some of the interpsychic things, 00:04:24.15\00:04:27.71 but women now have their whole identity is wrapped 00:04:27.74\00:04:32.37 up in the home more than the identity of men 00:04:32.40\00:04:36.06 tends to be. And so this whole issue of themselves 00:04:36.09\00:04:43.25 as a woman, themselves as a person needs to be 00:04:43.28\00:04:46.73 addressed and that's what we talk about when 00:04:46.76\00:04:49.42 we mean the psychic aspects of divorce adjustment. 00:04:49.45\00:04:53.88 Well then how can we in the church meet the needs 00:04:55.43\00:04:58.18 of divorcees? I guess as you discussed this sort 00:04:58.21\00:05:06.15 of thing I just think and praise the Lord for the 00:05:06.18\00:05:12.75 Lord's ways that can help us through all of this 00:05:12.78\00:05:16.38 and I think of spouses that haven't been divorce 00:05:16.41\00:05:19.81 to be more sensitive in these areas. 00:05:21.86\00:05:25.07 And it's teaching me something just listening 00:05:26.33\00:05:28.66 to you and I need to be more sensitive in these areas, 00:05:28.69\00:05:33.14 how can I do that? Well again one is by rising above 00:05:33.90\00:05:39.36 yourself, and entering into the experience of the 00:05:39.39\00:05:44.75 divorced person. And we talked about that a little 00:05:44.78\00:05:48.10 bit already but something more concrete that I would 00:05:48.13\00:05:51.10 like to recommend is that if we expect that in the 00:05:51.13\00:05:57.14 Christian church today divorce is going 00:05:57.17\00:05:59.15 to be a reality, even though it's not God's perfect plan, 00:05:59.18\00:06:02.86 it is reality, then we want to begin taking a look 00:06:04.08\00:06:07.81 at addressing it in a systematic way. 00:06:07.84\00:06:10.64 If I expected it is going to be happening in my church, 00:06:12.28\00:06:15.48 then my church needs to develop some type of a 00:06:16.25\00:06:19.18 program to address it. A part of the reluctance 00:06:19.21\00:06:22.77 of church is to do that is because we've not wanted 00:06:22.80\00:06:25.33 to accept it as something that's happening. 00:06:25.36\00:06:28.33 We wanted to put our head in the sand but 00:06:29.12\00:06:31.18 if we got into the point of simply being realistic about 00:06:31.21\00:06:33.95 it and being realistic doesn't condone it by the way 00:06:34.66\00:06:37.07 that's a part of what people think they'll be doing, 00:06:37.10\00:06:39.41 but if we are simply being compassionate with people 00:06:40.86\00:06:44.70 then we'll want to build in some type of divorce 00:06:46.22\00:06:48.37 recovery programs in the churches that address 00:06:48.40\00:06:52.04 these needs. Sometimes singles ministries in 00:06:52.07\00:06:55.69 churches have begun taking to look at some of these 00:06:55.72\00:06:58.72 issues because a lot of people in singles ministries 00:06:58.75\00:07:01.76 are people who have had a history of divorce. 00:07:01.79\00:07:03.61 Right. But I would like to see it not even 00:07:03.64\00:07:06.21 in the context of the singles ministry but simply 00:07:06.24\00:07:09.55 in the context of a church family embracing 00:07:09.58\00:07:13.27 the people who have found themselves in this situation. 00:07:14.48\00:07:17.72 Coming up alongside of them inviting them home, 00:07:19.31\00:07:23.97 not emotionally distancing themselves and again 00:07:26.37\00:07:30.44 some of the people who struggle the most 00:07:30.47\00:07:32.43 are children in divorces. We are gonna talk about 00:07:33.43\00:07:35.04 in a few minutes. But children have tremendous 00:07:35.07\00:07:39.23 needs, not just spouses in the marriage 00:07:39.26\00:07:42.33 and an effective church ministry is going to build 00:07:42.36\00:07:45.81 programming in for spouses and for children, 00:07:47.36\00:07:50.23 it's gonna invest time in these taking a look 00:07:51.49\00:07:55.49 at real needs that the spouses have. 00:07:55.52\00:07:57.50 Taking a look at real needs of the children have 00:07:57.53\00:08:00.19 and investing time and investing themselves people, 00:08:00.22\00:08:05.53 in these people who are hurting at this particular 00:08:05.56\00:08:08.51 time in their lives. You know the whole subject 00:08:08.54\00:08:13.00 makes me sad just talking about it makes me 00:08:13.03\00:08:17.59 realize how inadequate really I have been 00:08:17.62\00:08:20.39 in touching someone's lives this way. 00:08:20.42\00:08:23.85 And the faces of people when they are pretending 00:08:27.15\00:08:30.03 to be okay, I'm the kind of person that you might 00:08:30.06\00:08:32.82 consider the rescuer if I know the problem. 00:08:32.85\00:08:37.16 And I would like to be able to help people in this 00:08:38.60\00:08:43.62 area great deal more. Let's talk about the children now, 00:08:43.65\00:08:44.62 can we do that? Yes we can. What can we do 00:08:48.58\00:08:52.69 for the children who have gone through this 00:08:52.72\00:08:54.64 experience? Well I would like to talk about the experience 00:08:54.67\00:08:59.32 of a child going through it and I might begin by 00:08:59.35\00:09:04.56 talking about the experience of my own children 00:09:04.59\00:09:06.63 going through it for a few minutes. 00:09:07.70\00:09:09.73 Again I shared earlier that when we told them that 00:09:11.42\00:09:15.98 there was tremendous pain and they don't know 00:09:16.01\00:09:23.61 what's going on. Again our children never saw us 00:09:23.64\00:09:28.64 fight Cathy. They never saw us arguing and yelling 00:09:28.67\00:09:32.34 and screaming at each other sometimes children 00:09:32.37\00:09:34.87 do and they know. Sometimes children honestly 00:09:34.90\00:09:38.66 have said man you guys should have gotten divorced 00:09:38.69\00:09:41.26 long time ago would have been easier on us. Yeah. 00:09:41.29\00:09:43.74 Okay. But in your case it sounds like it would have 00:09:43.77\00:09:46.11 been in tremendous shock to them all the more 00:09:46.14\00:09:47.83 because they didn't see that. That's right. 00:09:47.86\00:09:50.39 Everything was underground and so it came as a 00:09:50.42\00:09:54.92 tremendous shock to our children. 00:09:54.95\00:09:57.14 And they first of all go through their own 00:09:57.17\00:09:59.24 grief process of this can't be happening 00:09:59.27\00:10:03.27 and they go through magical thinking which is you know, 00:10:03.30\00:10:10.65 was it me? Well that's a part of it, am I responsible, 00:10:10.68\00:10:14.16 what did I do wrong that caused mommy and daddy 00:10:14.99\00:10:17.08 to get divorced. But also the other aspect of magical 00:10:17.11\00:10:20.49 thinking is well somehow we are going to be able 00:10:20.52\00:10:24.52 to get mom and dad back together again, okay. 00:10:24.55\00:10:27.37 And so that's a part of their belief system 00:10:28.08\00:10:30.06 and I know my children for years held on to that longing 00:10:30.09\00:10:36.26 for us to get back together again, 00:10:37.08\00:10:38.88 because they love both of us. You know deeply and 00:10:40.15\00:10:43.93 dearly and, unfortunately in my situation as often 00:10:43.96\00:10:48.93 happens, my spouse had difficulty embracing 00:10:48.96\00:11:00.42 the need to hold me up before the children. 00:11:00.45\00:11:02.61 There was a lot of suspicion, there was a lot of 00:11:02.64\00:11:09.06 questions about dad, a lot of you know when you 00:11:09.09\00:11:14.31 come back home you tell me what you know, 00:11:14.34\00:11:16.11 what was going on kind of thing. 00:11:16.14\00:11:17.87 Yeah. And a lot of put downs and that really hurt 00:11:17.90\00:11:22.96 the children a great deal. And so children again 00:11:22.99\00:11:28.11 need to be supported and parents who are matured 00:11:28.14\00:11:31.82 in spite of their own pain will rise above that 00:11:31.85\00:11:35.98 to the take a look at the needs of their children in 00:11:36.01\00:11:38.98 their particular situation. One of the things that 00:11:39.86\00:11:44.10 children need very, very much is to know that they 00:11:44.13\00:11:47.90 are still loved by both mom and dad, 00:11:47.93\00:11:51.67 just because they're apart, it doesn't mean that 00:11:52.38\00:11:56.22 the children are still not precious and valuable 00:11:56.25\00:11:58.54 and very deeply loved by both of them. 00:11:58.57\00:12:01.28 I know that was very, very important for me. 00:12:02.37\00:12:04.84 I made at a point of calling my children 00:12:04.87\00:12:06.96 every single night. Really. For a period of time 00:12:07.17\00:12:10.49 until I knew that they knew that dad was gonna 00:12:10.52\00:12:15.70 be there and for them. And I would have them 00:12:15.73\00:12:18.70 come over you know on weekends and see them 00:12:18.73\00:12:21.21 as often as I could see them. And again I don't want 00:12:21.24\00:12:26.46 to say that I did everything perfectly because 00:12:26.49\00:12:28.73 I didn't I know that many things I did hurt the 00:12:28.76\00:12:32.23 children too, it wasn't because I intended to and 00:12:32.26\00:12:35.30 you know that's what happens most of the times 00:12:35.33\00:12:37.85 is that we don't intend to hurt our kids when 00:12:37.88\00:12:40.78 we go through a divorce but we either are not aware 00:12:40.81\00:12:43.71 of their needs, we are not sensitive to their needs 00:12:43.74\00:12:46.86 and so annoyingly we end up hurting our kids. 00:12:46.89\00:12:51.13 Well you were talking about one of the main problems 00:12:51.34\00:12:53.59 was selfishness. That's right, you know, that's right. 00:12:54.53\00:12:57.20 So you wouldn't at that time really be thinking 00:12:57.23\00:12:59.72 of the children as much as you should be. 00:13:00.58\00:13:02.53 As well as immaturity. Yes so that was one of the 00:13:03.27\00:13:06.44 other things that we talked about. 00:13:06.47\00:13:07.96 You know the natural tendency when we get 00:13:07.99\00:13:09.91 divorced is to blame the other party. 00:13:09.94\00:13:13.91 You have to blame your spouse and sometimes they 00:13:13.94\00:13:16.91 can tie-up bring our children into that you know 00:13:16.94\00:13:19.10 and you know, do you know that momma did this, 00:13:19.13\00:13:23.01 and this is, you know she was such a rotten person 00:13:23.04\00:13:25.29 in this area and that's why we got divorced. 00:13:25.32\00:13:27.80 You know, and that is totally destructive to our 00:13:28.94\00:13:31.80 children and I know as a part of my own growing up, 00:13:31.83\00:13:35.83 you know I saw that a lot of the responsibility 00:13:35.86\00:13:41.04 for the divorce was mine. You know every story, 00:13:41.07\00:13:45.83 every divorce that I ever come across it's never 00:13:45.86\00:13:49.66 just one person, never is. There are always two people 00:13:49.69\00:13:53.95 involved and each of them has responsibility 00:13:53.98\00:13:56.28 and I know that the day came when the Lord showed 00:13:56.31\00:14:01.52 me very clearly how I contributed to this divorce 00:14:01.55\00:14:05.43 and you know he told me to do? What? 00:14:05.46\00:14:07.99 He told me to write a letter of apology to my wife, 00:14:08.02\00:14:13.72 to my first wife. Did you find that difficult? 00:14:13.75\00:14:15.84 Well not at that point, earlier on it would have 00:14:15.87\00:14:20.83 been difficult. You would have. 00:14:20.86\00:14:21.83 Because I was just wasn't there. 00:14:21.84\00:14:23.77 You know it was it was her. But when the Lord 00:14:23.80\00:14:27.26 showed me, me and I was broken by that, 00:14:27.29\00:14:30.71 there was no more of that pride and no more that 00:14:30.74\00:14:33.23 blaming it was look, I am so sorry because I did 00:14:33.26\00:14:39.93 this and made it difficult for you in this area 00:14:39.96\00:14:43.17 and I was in touch with myself and so many things 00:14:43.20\00:14:46.84 that you tried to help me see I wasn't ready to see 00:14:46.87\00:14:49.66 at that point. And I just wanted, 00:14:49.69\00:14:51.96 I want to acknowledge those things to you and I 00:14:51.99\00:14:56.17 want to ask your forgiveness. 00:14:56.37\00:14:57.34 Right and when you did that, that's probably not 00:14:57.35\00:14:58.84 to say that whatever was your spouse's problems 00:14:58.87\00:15:02.99 that you approved all of them, or condemn them 00:15:04.98\00:15:06.52 or thought that they were not a problem anymore. 00:15:06.55\00:15:10.03 It's just that you are talking about the part that 00:15:10.06\00:15:12.28 you played in it. Well that's true, that's true, 00:15:12.31\00:15:14.77 but you know from my perspective I needed to 00:15:15.59\00:15:19.78 almost accept a 100 percent responsibility even though 00:15:19.81\00:15:22.46 realistically I know it wasn't? But for me in terms 00:15:22.49\00:15:25.97 of my own psychic dynamic, you know if I was going 00:15:26.00\00:15:29.23 to get away from blaming her at all I 00:15:29.26\00:15:31.71 needed to accept it as if it were mine. 00:15:31.74\00:15:33.57 Really. Totally, yeah and so. And this helped you 00:15:34.32\00:15:37.94 to heal. It surely did, it surely did and so today 00:15:37.97\00:15:41.81 I can look objectively at the situation but there 00:15:41.84\00:15:45.27 is no more bitterness there, because I have taken 00:15:45.30\00:15:48.75 a look at my part and brought it before the Lord 00:15:48.78\00:15:50.59 and forgiven. Yes and made restitution by the apology. 00:15:50.62\00:15:55.86 Yes. What other things do the children go through 00:15:55.89\00:15:59.28 that we can talk about? Well first of all children 00:15:59.31\00:16:05.30 go through a period of confusion. 00:16:05.33\00:16:07.19 Where are my loyalties in this now, 00:16:10.27\00:16:12.68 should I live with mommy? Should I live with daddy? 00:16:14.54\00:16:18.60 If I go and live with this one, 00:16:19.28\00:16:20.61 will this one stop loving me? You know, 00:16:21.76\00:16:24.16 am I being disloyal because I choose this particular one. 00:16:24.19\00:16:29.09 Children are put in tremendously difficult 00:16:29.12\00:16:32.24 spots. And some children are furiously loyal. 00:16:32.27\00:16:33.75 That's right, that's right, and sometimes legally 00:16:34.65\00:16:38.50 children don't have choice about who they are 00:16:38.53\00:16:42.26 gonna stay with but other times they do. 00:16:42.29\00:16:44.90 And so that the sensitivity that we need to have 00:16:46.12\00:16:50.39 to the position that we are putting our children 00:16:50.42\00:16:53.02 in and making decisions like that and the confusion 00:16:53.05\00:16:57.04 that they have in making those types of decisions 00:16:57.07\00:17:00.19 is something that we can really help them 00:17:00.22\00:17:04.57 through by being aware of it, by being aware of it. 00:17:04.60\00:17:08.37 This must be really hard for you right now and even 00:17:08.40\00:17:13.50 though I would love to have you come and live 00:17:13.53\00:17:15.06 with me, I want what's best for you? 00:17:15.09\00:17:17.53 That should be your attitude. That's right; 00:17:19.15\00:17:20.57 always what is best for the child. Another area. 00:17:21.41\00:17:25.65 Well another area is children have a gut feeling 00:17:26.37\00:17:35.51 that they've been let down by both parents 00:17:35.54\00:17:38.18 and they sometimes don't have words for that? 00:17:40.38\00:17:43.68 They don't know how to articulate that very clearly? 00:17:44.37\00:17:46.68 You know children know. Would that manifested self 00:17:49.18\00:17:51.30 and anger? Oh yes, okay. And again remember the 00:17:51.33\00:17:56.22 normal grief process for the child, 00:17:56.25\00:17:58.10 a part of that is anger. But a lot of times you know, 00:17:58.13\00:18:02.25 if we and our sanctimonious Christianity say well 00:18:02.28\00:18:06.70 it's not the case for you to be angry, 00:18:06.73\00:18:08.18 what we do is we prevent our children from having 00:18:09.71\00:18:12.39 that which is normal and healthy for them to have. 00:18:12.42\00:18:15.37 Okay, when we say that isn't? 00:18:15.40\00:18:17.16 Not that its that you can't be angry, 00:18:18.71\00:18:22.07 but how you handled the anger, 00:18:22.10\00:18:23.86 how you express the anger that we want to teach 00:18:23.89\00:18:26.10 them. In Ephesians Jesus told us. 00:18:26.13\00:18:28.26 I mean if you understand it. He told us be angry 00:18:28.29\00:18:30.04 and sin not, okay. And so there is an appropriateness 00:18:30.07\00:18:33.79 you know of anger, how to handle the feelings. 00:18:33.82\00:18:37.46 Without sinning? Exactly not to jump on either one 00:18:37.49\00:18:41.26 you know not to condemn either one but to be able 00:18:42.16\00:18:45.73 to express, you know mom, dad, you know when you 00:18:45.76\00:18:50.31 got married and you had me you are committed to me 00:18:50.34\00:18:54.82 for life in the context of a marriage and now 00:18:54.85\00:18:58.74 I'm being robbed of that experience. Yeah. 00:18:58.77\00:19:02.40 And I'm being put in the position where kids at school 00:19:03.37\00:19:07.12 are talking about me because your parents got divorced, 00:19:07.15\00:19:09.58 didn't they? And they hardly know how to say that 00:19:09.61\00:19:12.23 sometimes. Exactly, and children need to be given 00:19:12.26\00:19:16.24 permission to have a voice to talk about what 00:19:16.27\00:19:20.91 is going on even if it means their talk telling you. 00:19:20.94\00:19:24.45 About you. I am angry at you for how you let me down. 00:19:24.48\00:19:28.28 You know Cathy I've had to go to my children 00:19:29.39\00:19:31.52 individually and I've had to acknowledge to them 00:19:32.23\00:19:36.34 how I let them down, how I hurt them through 00:19:37.02\00:19:41.17 this divorce. And I have had to go to them and 00:19:41.20\00:19:43.80 I've had ask their forgiveness for what I have 00:19:43.83\00:19:47.59 done to hurt them and that has been tremendously 00:19:47.62\00:19:52.10 healing for the kids. Has it? It has been. 00:19:52.13\00:19:56.32 Of course it would. And the strain in the relationship 00:19:56.35\00:20:00.77 has been healed as a result of that and 00:20:00.80\00:20:03.45 it's still frankly an on going process 00:20:03.48\00:20:07.93 it's been now about fourteen years that they 00:20:07.96\00:20:13.08 have lived in a divorced situation. And 00:20:13.11\00:20:16.98 it's still, there is still process even now today 00:20:18.16\00:20:22.69 of talking about some of those old things that come 00:20:23.60\00:20:26.46 up because remember children don't want to think 00:20:26.49\00:20:29.96 badly of either parent. And what that does is puts 00:20:29.99\00:20:33.05 them in the position of denying the reality of their 00:20:33.08\00:20:36.49 own situation. And so many times it takes years 00:20:36.52\00:20:41.44 for them to get a handle on or to put words on their 00:20:41.47\00:20:45.59 own process. What's going on for me? I'm 00:20:45.62\00:20:49.13 just getting words for it, sometimes just through 00:20:49.98\00:20:51.96 reading a book or, and realizing something, 00:20:51.99\00:20:55.39 yeah a light will come on through a conversation 00:20:55.42\00:20:57.65 with the friend. But you know it shouldn't have 00:20:57.68\00:21:00.29 to take so long, yes. If we dealt with more effectively 00:21:00.32\00:21:04.27 as a church, then it would not have to take so long, 00:21:04.30\00:21:08.37 okay. And certainly that affects the church by 00:21:08.40\00:21:12.45 you having to go through it so long. It sure does. 00:21:12.48\00:21:14.90 In lots of areas. It surely does. 00:21:14.93\00:21:16.92 Even in the marketplace. Even in the marketplace. 00:21:16.95\00:21:20.47 And your work. That's right, yes. 00:21:20.50\00:21:24.71 What else? Well again we eluded to the fact before 00:21:24.92\00:21:28.84 that sometimes parents use children for their own 00:21:28.87\00:21:32.83 purposes and they ask the children to almost 00:21:32.86\00:21:37.56 be like little spies on the other one and that's putting 00:21:37.59\00:21:42.26 the children in an impossible situation. 00:21:42.29\00:21:45.05 You know to find out, you know how much daddy 00:21:46.43\00:21:47.93 is making, to find out if he is dating somebody else, 00:21:47.96\00:21:51.34 that is wrong. Yes, it's harming their character 00:21:52.73\00:21:56.72 and their growth for maturity, 00:21:56.75\00:21:58.33 I mean the growth toward maturity would be crippling 00:21:58.36\00:22:02.73 them wouldn't it. That's right, and again children 00:22:02.76\00:22:06.58 need to be empowered to be able to say to the parent 00:22:06.61\00:22:10.85 who is making that request that's not you know 00:22:10.88\00:22:15.01 that's not, you know that's not my position to do. 00:22:15.04\00:22:16.82 I am a child here, I am not a spy, you know 00:22:17.89\00:22:20.32 and I want to go and love mommy or love daddy without 00:22:20.35\00:22:23.85 any kind of interference from you. 00:22:23.88\00:22:25.68 That when you take an exceptional child to be 00:22:25.71\00:22:28.32 able to voice that. To be able to voice that. 00:22:28.35\00:22:29.32 Yes, I can imagine, an exceptional child, 00:22:29.33\00:22:31.84 I was just thinking that, okay. 00:22:33.26\00:22:34.23 But you see if we had some type of divorce recovery 00:22:34.24\00:22:36.96 system built into our churches then children would 00:22:36.99\00:22:41.72 have a forum to be able to talk about those things 00:22:41.75\00:22:44.80 openly and could get guidance from facilitators 00:22:44.83\00:22:49.18 or even from other young people who've gone through 00:22:49.21\00:22:52.10 it for a longer period of time. Yeah. 00:22:52.13\00:22:54.54 You know further along in the process. 00:22:54.57\00:22:56.04 There would be a forum for them to say, 00:22:57.24\00:22:58.70 well wait a minute that's not appropriate 00:22:58.73\00:23:00.07 and I want to support you invoicing your objection 00:23:00.10\00:23:03.98 to that kind of a request. Yes, we've got some more 00:23:04.01\00:23:10.57 to come for don't we? Well there is a lot more to say 00:23:10.60\00:23:13.70 about this. Children who are in this kind of a situation 00:23:13.73\00:23:21.54 need to be affirmed. They need to have someone come 00:23:21.57\00:23:27.22 in the church family almost take them under their 00:23:28.53\00:23:31.66 wing and be a surrogate parent to them and 00:23:31.69\00:23:39.06 especially in a situation where the divorced, 00:23:39.09\00:23:42.74 one of the divorced partners may move away 00:23:42.77\00:23:45.54 a long distance away that adds a whole set 00:23:45.57\00:23:49.88 of unique challenges to children 00:23:49.91\00:23:52.69 living in divorce situations. 00:23:52.72\00:23:54.22 If you are close enough where you can see people 00:23:55.44\00:23:57.32 like on weekends or have, you know visitation 00:23:57.35\00:24:00.13 on a regular basis right there. 00:24:00.16\00:24:02.46 That makes it easier when mom and dad are talking 00:24:03.36\00:24:05.46 and negotiating and working things out that makes 00:24:05.49\00:24:08.58 it easier. Even at best. Yes. You know there are 00:24:08.61\00:24:12.50 so many situations where there are not as calm 00:24:12.53\00:24:15.13 as what you're sounding like. There are some 00:24:15.16\00:24:17.96 tremendously violent situations and they I can see 00:24:17.99\00:24:21.53 how the child would need a great deal of support then. 00:24:21.56\00:24:25.75 That's right. But it will need a great deal of support 00:24:26.28\00:24:29.16 anyway even in a mild situation I would say. 00:24:29.19\00:24:31.65 That's true, but let's talk for a little bit about some 00:24:32.07\00:24:34.86 of the more severe situations those were maybe 00:24:34.89\00:24:37.46 there even has need to be a restraining order 00:24:37.49\00:24:40.50 to keep you know the parent away or whether 00:24:40.53\00:24:44.93 has been just subtle control and subtle force, 00:24:44.96\00:24:49.81 that kind of coercion which is always underground 00:24:49.84\00:24:52.82 but is such a powerful factor in creating the divorce 00:24:52.85\00:24:56.73 and where one of the partners wants to really 00:24:56.76\00:24:59.36 be controlling and manipulative of the situation. 00:24:59.39\00:25:01.97 That adds such tremendous complexity even from 00:25:03.08\00:25:06.58 the partner's point of view as well as from the 00:25:06.61\00:25:09.52 children's point of view. I've had situations Kathy 00:25:09.55\00:25:12.68 where the children frankly don't want to have 00:25:12.71\00:25:17.46 anything to do with one of the parties because 00:25:17.49\00:25:20.67 it's been so awful and are totally bonded to the other. 00:25:20.70\00:25:26.78 And it makes that, it makes it damaging to them 00:25:28.13\00:25:32.74 and you have the one partner saying to them, 00:25:32.77\00:25:35.34 boy you know I have these rights to see you but 00:25:35.37\00:25:38.18 the kids don't want to see him because every time 00:25:38.21\00:25:40.11 he talks to them he tries to manipulate and control 00:25:40.14\00:25:43.46 and work his way back in and that's what they 00:25:43.49\00:25:46.53 experienced their whole time with him, 00:25:46.56\00:25:48.89 and they don't want it now. Yeah. 00:25:48.92\00:25:50.50 And it makes it extremely difficult. Yeah. 00:25:50.53\00:25:53.58 And long distance relationships where 00:25:53.61\00:25:55.59 you can only see them on vacation times or holiday 00:25:55.62\00:25:58.90 times that makes it difficult and another factor 00:25:58.93\00:26:03.82 that often happens is that, is that if you have like 00:26:03.85\00:26:07.07 a custodial parent. The custodial parent almost 00:26:07.10\00:26:10.67 has to be the heavy, and do the day to day discipline 00:26:10.70\00:26:13.39 of the children and then when they go to the 00:26:13.42\00:26:15.02 non-custodial parent. Yeah. 00:26:15.05\00:26:17.04 They can live it up and have a great time and think 00:26:17.59\00:26:19.07 wow he is the greatest you know, 00:26:19.10\00:26:20.52 and so many times if the mother is a custodial 00:26:22.21\00:26:24.64 parent she ends up looking like the witch, yes, 00:26:24.67\00:26:28.13 you know that the tough one and they grabs 00:26:28.16\00:26:29.74 the wonderful one. And so I want to go live 00:26:29.77\00:26:32.58 with dad because we have great times with dad. 00:26:32.61\00:26:34.33 Yeah. And the children don't see really that mom 00:26:34.36\00:26:39.15 is loving them in a way that they really need 00:26:39.18\00:26:41.53 to be loved. And that's how we need to love 00:26:41.56\00:26:44.43 them too, I mean, well we need to love them 00:26:44.46\00:26:47.15 in a way that they can see Christ so much 00:26:47.18\00:26:49.63 in us the example that they won't be ruined 00:26:49.66\00:26:52.68 for life because this is happened to them, 00:26:52.71\00:26:54.59 or just think that they might have to go through this 00:26:54.62\00:26:57.04 too, it could be different for them. That's right. 00:26:57.07\00:27:00.42 Now I suppose we need to wrap this up, don't we? 00:27:00.45\00:27:03.35 Yes we do. And this is a difficult subject but 00:27:03.38\00:27:07.68 I really pray for our viewers that they are going to 00:27:07.71\00:27:10.81 benefit from the information that you have given them. 00:27:10.84\00:27:12.77 We want to have you back again and it's not going 00:27:14.74\00:27:19.96 to be on the subject of divorce, 00:27:19.99\00:27:21.63 it's going to be on the subject the right use 00:27:21.66\00:27:23.18 of the will. And I think if we use what were coming 00:27:23.21\00:27:26.24 to we might avoid some of these things 00:27:26.27\00:27:29.16 in the future right? That's right, yeah. 00:27:29.19\00:27:31.40 So you'll be back with us again. Yes. 00:27:31.43\00:27:34.69 The subject we are gonna talk about is one 00:27:34.72\00:27:36.44 of the most favorite subjects that I have in 00:27:36.47\00:27:40.23 all of my studies. I want to invite you to be back 00:27:40.26\00:27:43.96 with us again, and don't miss this next program 00:27:43.99\00:27:48.32 that we are gonna have on the right use of the will. 00:27:48.35\00:27:50.38 I think you will be interested in it and you can use 00:27:51.09\00:27:52.54 it in your home. Dr. Scdlacck, 00:27:52.57\00:27:54.51 would you pray with us. I will. Father, 00:27:54.54\00:27:57.73 we thank you for loving us. We thank you. 00:27:57.76\00:28:00.83