Rick Beeman

For children, divorce is like the father grabbing the left wrist of the child and the mother grabbing the right wrist in a tug of war for control and affection of the child.  Kids are obviously the ones injured in the tussle.  Alienation is using words and actions so the child will shun the other parent in the tug of war.  I for the most part have let go of the wrist in order to not further harm the children.  Here is how Wikipedia describes Parental Alienation: Parental alienation is a social dynamic, generally occurring due to divorce or separation , when a child expresses unjustified hatred or unreasonably strong dislike of one parent, making access by the rejected parent difficult or impossible. These feelings may be influenced by negative comments by the other parent and by the characteristics, such as lack of empathy and warmth, of the rejected parent. I have mentioned past illustrations of alienating actions in previous versions of this blog so I wont re...

I felt very silly sitting in a Fat Burger restaurant with tears streaming down my face. This is not your everyday experience so let me explain. I am a creature of habit so I have a routine I follow. I am alone for another 2.5 months so I’m going to continue to follow this routine as I have been generally for the past three years since I came to the Middle East. For breakfast I spend time with God, reading my Bible then praying/listening to Him. For lunch I spend time with whatever reality show Im addicted to at the moment (either Amazing Race or Survivor). I can buy the past seasons on itunes for about $20. So I don’t have to wait week by week to see the cliff hanger. I usually watch one episode after the other (Yeah, Immediate Gratification!). So this particular episode of Survivor aired in the US sometime early December. It usually makes me cry but even moreso this year. It’s the episode they always do where the remaining survivors are reunited with their loved ones. Its ...

It was a very special day today on a couple of levels. First of all, God has really been speaking to me lately. Just to put it out there as a matter of faith I’ll tell you about it. First of all…meeting and becoming engaged to Jennifer was an absolutely called shot by God. Now we have to work out the details. My career, her career, her dissertation, when exactly to get married, where to live, what to do with her dogs, her house, which way to roll the toilet paper over or under..etc. So while I was with Jennifer I felt like God told me that everything would get sorted out in a spectacular way in two months. That word was around the middle of Feb. (I forgot to write the exact date down). So its going to happen somewhere around Mid-April I believe. God is so cool when he gives me these dates. They always come to pass. So this week God told me that to prepare for the future and for guidance I was supposed to fast for two days. Just a short little one, and Jennifer did too. We a...