Driven to Drink (Part 2)

The conduct following the first three days of our summer that inspired the original “Driven to Drink” post did improve…a little bit. In part due to an intense, parental meltdown complete with ultimatums. This is something I would never advocate for my clients. But hey, I was desperate and wanted change now.

And I knew I wasn’t alone. The entire family desired to change, but could not control ourselves. Inappropriate, disharmonious behavioral slips ooze from all of us like sweat from our pores.

Fortunately, in my heart I knew what was wrong.

Several months ago, my husband and I had offered to host a small group parish book study on Scott Hahn’s “A Father Who Keeps His Promises”. We scheduled the study at what was our traditional time for family confession once or twice a month. The study had a short time frame. I figured we could get to confession at another time.

Prior to the starting of our group and before school let out I attempted to go to confession before the early mass. But I was a few minutes shy of making it. And the “magical other time” to go to reconciliation never knocked us in the face.

So there we stood, feeling grungy with our sin. Accustomed to confession every couple of weeks, we were pushing close to two months without our spiritual tuneup. The collective cruddy performance these days at the Weber home was not a mystery.

And I wasn’t the only one who made the connection between our deteriorating family interactions and our hiatus from frequent reconciliation. Stay tuned for this in the next blog.

Catholic Women’s Guide to Healthy Relationships Tip: Make monthly family confession a part of your routine.