Wormwood's Letter on Failing the Father -7QTF

I know y'all like pictures and memes. Not this Friday. Bear with me. I'm going to examine an old post by Kelsey at Organizing Life with Littles entitled, "A Screwtape Letter for the Unappreciated Mom." It by far is one of my favorite blog posts that I've ever read. So many have commented or shared it in the last year and a half, but I thought why not craft a response into a dad's quick takes?

- 1 -

My Dear Uncle,

I have reemerged from my devourance. Your years of biding your time, cultivating the thoughts that all are equal, that none are excellent, that none should grow to excellence or else suffer condemnation are upon us. I sense the time to strike has arrived. I am swift. I no longer need stealth or subtelty. Through your careful creation of cowards over these many many decades since the war, I now deftly and destructively can take action against this father and his lack of precaution, lack of defenses, or lack of ability to group himself and surround himself with armed and courageous men who possess pride in their faith and resolve. I use this wonderfully attractive weapon of the blue bird and these interactive groups of "friends" to tear at any virtue, to oppress the few moral fibers, to let those in my allegiance rip apart the father while hiding behind the glowing wall that they now call a "relationship." I can rearrange the perception of the masses by limiting the explanation to just a few words, and those few words are seen and believed as truth! I have no need for subtelty dear Uncle. I have an army of attackers willing to share a lie, willing to bend a truth, and mark it with this curious symbol # and create a hateful cause from it. I shall reach millions dear Uncle. Faster and bolder than you could have possibly dreampt of achieving.

Your nephew,

Wormwood.

- 2 -

My Dear Uncle,

I now gloat, and you will envy my success in how I have destroyed the more traditional concepts of a father's love for the Enemy. You spoke of destroying the man through eroding the effectiveness of his prayer. Ha, dear Uncle. I can now outright convince courts of the jurisdiction, those who craft the laws of these lands, and the apathetic mass of populace who vote for such whims and fancies, to disregard wisdom and tradition, and centuries of experience. I have won, by my use of peer repression, man's desire to follow very innate craftings of his soul that the Enemy placed therein, to be what he was created to be, to follow the Enemy and his virtures. The very family and friends this father thought he had now brand him an outcast! In some realms I even dare say I've convinced them all rather blatantly and openly, that for this father to illustrate to others that he follows the conscience of his soul, that he follows the Enemy, is an illegal expression and oppression of the equality of others, and a severly misguided choice! Do you hear me Uncle? I can lie from the precipice, the blasphemy of his once found freedom is no more!

Your triumphant nephew,

Wormwood

- 3 -

My dear Uncle Screwtape,

I do acknowledge and applaud your attempts, miniscule as they may have been, shortsighted undoubtedly in my opinion, at devaluing the relationship this father has with the persons domiciling with him. Those small loathesome creatures the Enemy always has viewed as gifts and blessings, and his counterpart spouse. Why waste such precious time with petty annoyances, when one so talented as myself can create mountains from trifles? In my realm I need merely incense and enrage, and a'flying to their barrister they go. Such giddyness it brings us as those small ones are dragged behind in that journey, scratched and scraped. Oh, ho ho, I can prolong it. I can make them think they have settled their differences, only to dredge a fit of jealously or envy in front of their adult hardened and greened eyes. I can make him believe and fancy he's the recipient of the slightly more favorable percentage. I can make her feel the same. Then I tip their scale of false equity! Because our world now is all about equity instead of the right, the just, the virtuous. Such disgusting concepts they were. As the father and mother turn to catch what they feel they lost, they blame, they attack, they begin the battle anew, losing more and more of the most important relationship they may have had in their life. Other than the one with our Enemy.

~ WW

- 4 -

Oh silly Uncle Screwtape,

With such hypocritical role models these young fathers have everywhere they turn, the abuse, the recklessness, the bitterness... Those are grandiose and excruciatingly hollow models, dear Uncle. I've littered all of society with them. So this father's children can be disappointed in every turn. That this father sees more of his "heroes" fail. And in seeing them fail at every turn his gaze certainly won't be affixed to our Enemy. I can even undercut his resolve to regurgitate his roots as he feebly attempts to rely on his faith. I allow him to use the same tools I do to quickly reach my masses of unwitting followers, and in his hopes of becoming or remaining a beacon, a light for the Enemy, shouting out for his truth... My followers will slice and scar him. They shall cut him down for me, revelling in their every success, and this father must endure this? I barely need raise a finger. These fashionable tools are largely mine now to command. The vitriol I infuse them with cannot be quelched or quickly ceased once began. I daresay I sit back and just gaze as it unfolds before me. Watching our dear father burn amidst the flames of faceless words. Who knew the power? Who knew the scope?

Your confident nephew,

Wormwood

- 5 -

My dear Uncle,

This father I watch, you once told me to promote shallow unselfishness with his wife. In doing so he would come, over time, to begrudge her or harbor bitterness against her. Again I say, unnecessary now. I have solved this rather expeditiously. I shall simply unearth his most grevious past transgression to an external "disinterested" source, and they shall instantly portray it to her and to all others who bear some remote connection to them, and together they persecute and brand him a hypocrite. He will have no choice but to withdraw because he must "save" his family. Oh yes, the wife shall receive such consolation, such empathy, such pity. She shall fall into despair and regret as he receives such hatred from those same consolers and empathizers. In their lack of forgiveness they will counsel her to do likewise. He shall receive no forgiveness. He shall receive no good counsel as this bustling of activity in their lives you've had their world create over these decades has limited his ability and time to relate to fellow believers. I have this father convinced that as a Catholic, as a Christian, he must be perfect. Any lack of perfection is judged immediate damnation.

~WW

- 6 -

Uncle Screwtape,

I return now to the subject of this father's children. I shan't convince him that they're obnoxious, nor obtuse. No, these parents of today are far too forgiving. They're far too lackadaisical and carefree. They view disobedience or obstinance as par for the course, and a piece of their parenting puzzle. While the point you convey of making the father (and mother for that matter) only aware of the child's take and need, well intended as it may be, I will make their struggle simple. Pass them off on someone else. The simple choice of taking little or no parental responsibility is my pure genious. These younglings will never feel the closeness of love our Enemy preaches. How delightful this choice appears to this father and mother! He is no role model for his family. He shall never be viewed then or acknowledged for his acumen in rearing and raising, only his cleverness in selfishness. Thankfully, my realm seems to devalue having too many of them anyway. I have outright convinced so many to cease welcoming these legacy blessings of the Enemy, even where they consciously choose and block the procreative power He imbued them with. The empowerment to strip their most natural power. Such brilliance!

Nephew Wormwood

- 7 -

Dear Uncle,

I fear I may once again be devoured for my failure with this father. Despite all my boasting and bragging, despite that my realm has changed and lends itself quite well to brazen and overt tactics, I have overlooked something. The Enemy remains. If this father possesses the will to find him, he can. I cannot erase our Enemy from existence. Nor can I seem to erase this father's will. Successful as I may be in distracting, harming, or misappropriating this father's will at times, the possibility of his savlation remains. We cannot reverse historical happenings when this salvation occurred either. This awful sacrificial love and mercy exists; when the Enemy's father chose to align his will with this realm, repairing the transgressions of all past and future people. A salvation by the virtue of this grace they call it. Beware dear Uncle, it is this craftiness of the Enemy which poses our greatest threat, his ever presence, and that the Enemy's will hasn't changed since the beginning of time? That these fathers, mothers and children experience his love through the ebbs and flows of the ages? That at any time they can choose to reverse their course in light of all? Or refuse that which I place in front of them?

Much angered,

Wormwood

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I suppose the simplest choice may not always be the easiest or the most popular. Hope you have a great weekend filled with the resolute choice of our God's will for us.

For more quick takes from other awesome bloggers visit Kelly Mantoan's This Ain't The Lyceum for the link-up.