Print Friendly by Kiery A failure, that’s what I was, a giant failure. I couldn’t be the daughter my parents wanted me to be. I had tasted freedom, and I felt like I deserved it. I couldn’t go back to being the second mom after being told I was an adult. Adults can’t take their children’s adulthood away, can they? The 6 months between the split and my 18th birthday were the darkest days of my life. I was horribly depressed, I hardly ate, I contemplated cutting and suicide on more than one occasion. Honestly, Full post …
Mother’s Helper
Preparing a Visionary Daughter to Do Hard Things ~ Part 4: Growing Up
Print Friendlyby Kiery The thing about training is that eventually, you grow up and exercise what you were taught. I was taught to think for myself, to stand up regardless of pressure, and in the end, that’s what I did. The last half of my 16th year my parents spent drilling into me that I was a capable adult and ready for marriage. I went to visit my boyfriend after christmas and I think my parents fully expected a proposal even though (despite me being 16) we’d only been together since September. I was nervous, Full post …
The 49 Character Qualities of Ruth #16: Puberty
Print Friendly(Note: This is not a post about “sex” or purity. This is a post about how my journey into puberty occurred. I’ll get to the purity stuff later.) Discretion vs. Simplemindedness – The ability to avoid words, actions, and attitudes which could result in undesirable consequences (Proverbs 22:3) – Bill Gothard by RazingRuth My body started developing secondary sex traits very early. By the time I was ten, I had breast buds and needed a training bra. What might surprise some is the fact that my mother and father saw this and immediately set Full post …
The 49 Character Qualities of Ruth #15: Hypocrisy
Print FriendlySincerity vs. Hypocrisy – Eagerness to do what is right with transparent motives (I Peter 1:22) – Bill Gothard by RazingRuth Sincerity? – My dad was very careful about our public image. Most ATI patriarchs are. Though we didn’t go out in public very often, and certainly we never went out alone, when we did go out, we were dressed and pressed. My sisters and I were required to have long hair. This hair was not allowed to be braided, however, because that was un-Biblical. Usually, our hair was curled on rag rollers or Full post …
The 49 Character Qualities of Ruth #14
Print FriendlySensitivity vs. Callousness – Exercising my senses so I can perceive the true spirit and emotions of those around me (Romans 12:15) – Bill Gothard’s Character Traits by RazingRuth Before I talk about my own experience, I want to talk about birthdays, in this movement, as a whole. Birthdays in a Gothard family can vary wide and deep. The level of celebration depends on several things. First, how deep into Gothardism the family is and when they came in. Second, how many children the family currently has. Third, the level of legalism they adhear Full post …
The Destiny of a Virtuous Daughter ~ Part I: Beginnings of the Mask
Print Friendlyby Starfury Who is that girl I see staring straight back at me? -Mulan For as long as I can remember, I was somebody else. My driving factors were love, approval, and being wanted, for who I was. That never came, in part due to the fact that in my work to achieve my goals I molded who I was to others’ specifications. As a result, I am trying to figure out who I am, even though I’m now an adult. Even now, it is easy to slip into the role that I Full post …
Preparing a Visionary Daughter to Do Hard Things ~ Part 3: Critical Thinking
Print Friendlyby Kiery Many people tell me I’m brave, they can’t believe how strong I am. Ten years of playing “mommy 2” isn’t overly common in the outside world. People at church would often tell me how lucky my parents were to have me and say “I bet you help out a lot, huh?” and I would nod and say “yes” while scanning the room to keep tabs on my siblings. “You guys are so blessed!” They would exclaim to my parents, “I don’t know how you do it.” My parents would nod in agreement while Full post …
The 49 Character Qualities of Ruth #13
Print FriendlyPunctuality vs Tardiness – Showing high esteem for other people and their time (Ecclesiastes 3:1) – Bill Gothard by RazingRuth This is Ruth-lite because, as I was glancing through the character qualities and trying to figure out what to write about this time, I realized that this topic would contain some humor. Our family was religiously devoted to punctuality. Chalk it up to my father’s obsessive-compulsive behavior or to it being one of our operational definitions but we were rarely tardy for anything. Unless, of course, it was a social function after a long road Full post …
Michelle says, Never enough babies!
