Letters of Wisdom by Wanda E. Brunstetter

Author:Wanda E. Brunstetter [Wanda E. Brunstetter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781636096230
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2023-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

LaVern entered the barn through the double doors and collapsed onto a bale of straw. He needed to be alone for a while and hoped to digest all that Irma had told him about her phone call from Dorcas and the abuse she had suffered from the man he had worked for and thought he knew.

If I had known about Irma having been abused when I lived and worked in St. Ignatius, I could have helped her deal with it. I would have spoken to Homer about it, even if it meant losing my job.

LaVern leaned against the wooden post behind his back, thankful for the needed support. He felt weak and sickened trying to imagine what it must have been like for Irma to have been severely beaten by her stepfather on many occasions. When Homer married Dorcas, it was his job to look after his new wife as well as her daughter. Irma was just a child and didn’t deserve to be spoken to so harshly or physically abused. She deserved a father’s love and protection, as all children do. He remembered something one of their ministers had preached awhile back. He’d said that a father knows best when he knows Jesus. LaVern didn’t see how Homer could have known Jesus very well if he’d treated his stepdaughter so harshly and said hurtful things to her.

He shifted on the prickly bale he sat upon and stared at the nose-tickling straw scattered across the floor where other bales had been previously opened. When he’d first met Irma after moving to Montana and being hired by her stepfather at the mill, he’d thought she was just a shy young woman with some insecurities. LaVern had never suspected that Irma had been the victim of abuse.

His nostrils flared as he reflected on what Irma had told him about her mother—how she’d known about her husband’s abuse but never stepped in to protect her daughter. LaVern did not understand why Dorcas didn’t take her children and leave Homer or try to get him some help. Surely, their church leaders would have offered some suggestions if Dorcas had told them what her husband had done to Irma.

Although it was wrong not to accept her mother’s apology, LaVern understood why it was difficult for Irma, because he was also angry about the situation and hurt because his wife had hid all this from him. Regardless of that, if Irma did not forgive Dorcas, the resentment she felt would fester and spill out into every area of her life.

LaVern bowed his head and prayed out loud: “Dear Lord, I am asking You to give me the right words to help my wife see that she needs to forgive her mother. And please heal Irma’s heart from all the heartache and pain she had to deal with for so long with no one to protect her from an angry man. Help her to see that she not only needs to forgive her mother but her stepfather too, for that is what Your Word says we are supposed to do.

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