No truer words were ever spoken.

However, it took me a LONG long time not only to learn that lesson, but to learn the lesson that LOVE is an action word.

My parents told me over and over again how MUCH they loved me.  Why, couldn’t I see how much they loved me?  My father spent 18 hours a day “working” because he loved me so much.  Ok, so quite a few of those hours were while he was “working” at a bar, but it was still work!

And my mother, oh her love for me knew NO boundaries.  When my little sister drew a picture of our family, she drew a picture with four distinct panes, divided by a heavy black line.  Yes, we all lived in our own world.  My father, of course, was pictured “at work” although in her 9 year old niavete, she thought he was at his office in the car dealership he owned.  I was pictured riding my horse and she was pictured smiling and happy.  My mother, well my mother was lying asleep on the couch.  Oh, the fury that picture engendered in my mother.  HOW DARE SHE DRAW SUCH A PICTURE!

The fact was, it was true.  My mother immersed herself in Bible Study.  She went to Bible Study Fellowship meetings in the morning and spent her afternoons finishing the arduous assingments.  Without fail, she would drift off to sleep, I’m certain while she was deep in “prayer.”

Instead of admitting her folly though, my mother ripped into my sister.  How dare she expose the family to such shame! It was ridiculous, but in my family of origin, such disclosures are labeled an act of treason.