Everytime I read or hear Dungy talk about his son Jordan I am amazed. I had never heard of children born without the ability to feel pain. I can't imagine being a child or parent in that situation. Anyone who enjoys learning from pain, has there own disability, because enjoying pain is not natural. As adults however we know the lessons that we have learned through the pains of life.
The worst thing that I can think of however is not being able to learn from your own pain. We all experience the pains of adolescents and the brutal teasing. We experience adult pains in marriage, jobs and parenting. I remember thinking that I would be the perfect parent to teenagers. As a youth minister I often was very judgmental of parents that couldn't get though to their teens. That all stopped six years ago when I became a parent of teens. There has been a lot of joy in the journey, but there has certainly been a lot of pain. The irony is twenty two years ago the first adult class I taught in Shelbyville was a class on parenting. All I had was a dog, and a bunch of other people's kids. I apologize openly for 90% of what I taught in that class. I had never experienced parenting a teen and shut have kept my mouth shut. Twenty two years and a lot of pain later, I still don't have all the answers but I coudl sure do a better job of teaching the class.
I guess the best way to finish today is to say, if you are trying to be a Christian dad and need a mentor, I might not be the best one to check with but I feel your pain.
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