Dear Pastor,

I can tell you from experience that there are a lot of parents who don't care about their children. Before my stepmother came into the picture, my father and I got along very well. As a boy growing up, when my father took out my sister and me, we felt special. But when my stepmother came into the picture, everything changed. It was like he forgot about us. He cared more about her and her child. And everything she said, he did.

I don't think he hated us, but he didn't want to lose her. Now she is not in his life anymore and we are getting along with him very well. I don't hate my father, but I have not forgotten those years he treated us like outcasts.

Ignored

Dear Ignored,

I am glad that looking back at the relationship that you have had with your father you were able to assess why he did not spend as much time with your brother and you after he fell in love with a woman. Perhaps you felt a little jealous of her because he was spending more time with her. And to you as a child, you believe that had it not been for her, he would have spent more time with his children.

I doubt that he was ignoring you, it was perhaps a matter of finding new love and giving this new love his best shot. The woman is gone, but your sister and yourself have your dad and hopefully it would be like that until death separates you.

Pastor