A bit of a departure...

May I encourage you to go over to Holly's site at "Seeking Faithfulness". She has written a powerful post on Domestic Violence in the Christian home.

Below is an excerpt from Holly's post:

“Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. Has not the Lord made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. “I hate divorce,” says the Lord God if Israel, “and I hate a man’s covering himself with violence as well as with his garment,” says the Lord Almighty. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith.”

I will say that God hates it when a man mishandles his wife or children. He is a God of justice. (Job 11:14; Job 19:7; Psalm 33:5) He desires for a man to love his wife more than he loves his own body. I believe that he grieves when one of us physically abuses another. (Colossians 3:19, Ephesisans 5:25; 5:28)

So many times in the Christian blog world, we focus on the woman’s role in a marriage – and rightly so. But we do so to the neglect of what is a man’s role. A man is to love his wife, sacrificially. He is to love her as Christ loves the church. He is to honor her, tenderly consider her, be compassionate to her, not harsh with her.

A man of God loves his wife – and he who loves someone does not physically harm them. Children suffer in abusive marriages. I know, because I was raised in one.

http://seekingfaithfulness.wordpress.com/2007/04/12/spousal-abuse-in-a-christian-home/#comments

Here is the direct link to her post. She has other posts from today that are on the top of the page.

Also, as my Dad wished me to clarify, the entire section above is a quote from Holly's blog. The abusive home referenced was Holly's, not mine. I am grateful that the home that I grew up in was not abusive in any way. (Does that clear things up, Dad?)