a letter to my nephews

Dear J & L,

I didn’t want to stop talking to you two. I didn’t want to stop seeing you two. And L, I didn’t want to stop responding to your messages. But your father took the ability to respond away from me. Not because I did anything wrong, but because I am living for Christ. He was the one who pushed me out your door on Christmas Day and said, “You’re done,” to me. I heard you two calling after me, but I couldn’t respond. I had to leave because I had to tell him that he had to live for God. I had to stand up for myself when he said that God would not provide for me.

God does provide, and God is providing now.

Do not listen to the world that says you have to be stressed beyond comprehension to work, to live. Those are lies. The truth is, you can have peace, but it only comes from God. Not from the world, not from a video game, not from people. From Christ. It comes from Him. Everything does, including your lives. I don’t know if I will ever see you two again. I don’t know if either of you will even see this letter, but I have to write it. I have to put the truth out there, and I have to pray that when you both are old enough, we can see each other again, that you two will become men of God. I hope the same for your father. And I hope your mother can become a woman of God, too.

I do not hate them. I don’t hate either of you. I love you all. And what I want is just for all of you to live for God. To put Him first. To understand that this temporary world and all of the suffering in it are nothing compared to the glory of Christ. As long as I am on this earth, I will always be thinking of you, J & L.

Always.

And Bryn is thinking of you, too.

Your aunt,

Brooklyn