The King and His Drama Queen

By Victoria Royal

At a very young age, I was taught about an all-powerful, all-knowing God. I was taught facts about who he was and about his laws (the Ten Commandments). I was taught to respect him, and I did. But nobody could teach me how to love him. My God, my Abba, and daddy taught me that on his own. In my life, there has never been, nor will there ever be, a love that compares to my love for my daddy God.

Yet foolishness and selfishness drew me away from him. I never stopped loving him. I just ignored him and did my own thing. I spent my time running in circles, looking for love in all the wrong faces and all the wrong places. Now at the age of sixty-seven, I can look back and see how lonely I was when I turned my back on him.

I wrote this book to share my life and my mistakes in trying to live life without God. My desire is to show his patience, his forgiveness, his sense of humor, and his never-ending love. If I could stop just one person from making the same mistakes, it was worth it!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499072297

Book preview

THE KING AND I

(INTRODUCTION)

When I was a child, my daddy was my whole life. I adored him, and I knew how much he loved me. When he was around, life seemed perfect. The problem was he wasn’t around very much. Either his job or women kept him from us. Daddy left us when I was just seven years old, taking with him just about all of my heart.

With the little bit of my heart that remained, I transferred my love and adoration to my Heavenly Father. So that when the world became my battleground and those in it became my enemies, I would run to Daddy God with every dramatic problem. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I shared everything with Him.

Daddy God, Mommy is hurting real bad today and she really needs you to heal her now! Or God, my sister just lied about me again. I know you want me to forgive her, but it hurts when Mom never believes me. You’ll love this one. Daddy God, could you please keep Sister Bernadette from seeing my mistakes in this math paper, PLEASE. (That plea didn’t always work.) Because we lived next to a Dairy Queen, this was my weekly cry. Lord, please help me find a nickel so I can buy a cone.

My Daddy God knew everything there was about me (good and bad) long before I got to the confessional on Saturdays so I could receive communion on Sunday. Sometimes I’d struggle when I was confessing my sins to the priest because I couldn’t remember what I had already confessed to God.

Of course, as I got older, my conversation with Him changed. Daddy God, can you please tell me why Kathy doesn’t seem to like me anymore? Next, it was I guess I shouldn’t ask you this, but do you think Bobby likes me just a little bit? Yes, I shared it all!

But that was until the day when I was almost sixteen. I remember clearly (as if it were yesterday) saying to Him, Daddy God, I’m going to be going places and seeing people that I know you’re not going to approve of. I’ll tell you what. I’ll get back to you later, okay? So, I left Him to explore the world on my own!

Oh, those horrible, stupid teenage years! What’s sad was that I didn’t get back to Him until I was in my late twenties. What you will read in the following pages is my life with and without my Daddy God. Is my life, my story, more fascinating and different than yours? Seriously, I doubt it. So what do I hope to accomplish by showing you just what a fool I have been from time to time? My prayer is that it will keep you from making the same mistakes. My desire is to show you that even when things in life are tough, our Daddy God is right by our side loving us, encouraging us.

Not long ago, I suggested to my teenaged granddaughter that I would pick her up at school. My life came to an abrupt stop when I realized by her answer that she didn’t want me to. It was pretty obvious that she now had become embarrassed of me, her old nana. Oddly, I didn’t fall completely apart because I remembered back in the day when I had been embarrassed of my grandma.

My grandma loved the Lord with all her heart. When we were at church, she sang out to Him with all her being. Sadly, she always sang off key. The older I got, the more embarrassed I was to sit by her. Oh, what I would do to hear her sing (off key) today! I’ll bet she sings louder than any angel in heaven as she stands face to face with the God she loves so deeply!

My granddaughter showed me a real truth about myself, a truth that cuts deep. I must have become embarrassed by my Daddy God when I was a teenager. Why else would I leave a loving, caring Father? Personally, I have one real prayer for you: I wrote this book in hopes that I can stop you from ever walking away from the one true God, the passionate lover of your soul!

You will see that the titles of this book were taken from Broadway shows, movies, and various songs. It’s pretty obvious that Daddy God created me to be dramatic, isn’t it?

If I could, I’d put a melody to every chapter; the melody of my life, a melody that I sometimes sang off key.

If you can take the time, sit back and relax. Draw close to Jesus as I share with you the story of The King and I.

For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ!

—Romans 1:16

PART 1

CHAPTER 1

Born Free

Seriously, I need to get out of here. It’s been an awesome place to start out and grow. I’ve been comfortable, warm, and fed on demand. All of my needs have been met. The truth is I’ve outgrown these surroundings. I just need to get out. I need to explore. I need to find myself and to live out the destiny that I was created for!

The question is, just how do I get out?

Screaming isn’t doing the trick here. No one seems to hear me or care for that matter.

Let’s see. What if I kick? I’ll kick with all my might. Here goes . . .

There does seem to be some reaction of some sort. It still isn’t enough to get a serious response. This is definitely going to take some work on my part. I’m determined to do this! Today is the day!

I really hate doing this to a young, innocent woman with whom I will spend the rest of my lifetime calling mother. She’s already gone through so much starting out her forced marriage because she found herself pregnant with me. My father has already made her suffer for her mistake in proving her love for him, and I’m sure today will be another one of those days. As usual, he’s nowhere to be found. Is he really going to miss my grand entrance into the world? Where are you, Daddy? We need you!

I’m sorry, Mommy, but we can’t wait for Dad. I do feel your desperation and pain, but it’s time. You certainly don’t deserve this. I can’t believe that nobody is here by your side. We’ll do this together, Mommy; just you and me. You’ll see; it’ll be a real bonding time.

After twenty hours of me kicking and you in dreadful pain, you aren’t really interested in bonding with me, are you?

Wait just a minute here. Mommy, look at that doctor. What is he about to do? Look what he’s got, Mommy! He’s squeezing my head! It hurts so badly! Those stupid forceps are hurting my head!

Whew! It actually worked! Finally, I’m out!

Now what? Some silly old nurse is putting nitroglycerine in my eyes to open them. Does she have any idea how much that stings? I can’t possibly need that much! Back off, woman!

So they’re going to separate us for a while so we can regain our strength. You need to rest, okay? I need to start this day my way. Don’t you worry about me! I promise to be tough, but gentle too. I’ll make you proud of me someday! You rest and I’ll see you later. I love you, Mommy!

As the story goes, once I had been returned to my mom, she saw that I was completely bald and my head was pointed to a peak because of the forceps used to get me out. Because the nurse used too much nitroglycerine, my eyes were dramatically bulged. Is it any wonder that her first words were That’s not my baby! You can’t make me take that home! You can’t make me! I certainly wasn’t what she had dreamed of! What a gruesome joke I must have been to her. (I swear the creator of the original Saturday Night Live must have been in the hospital somewhere that day. I know that it was my appearance that inspired someone to come up with the Coneheads!)

I’ve always wondered how long it took for my daddy to learn he had a daughter. I wondered if he really cared. I also wondered if I still looked like a monster when he first saw me.

Let’s see; what did I learn about my first day in this great big world? I learned that I was an ugly baby whose mother was nauseated by my appearance and whose daddy would rather party (with some other woman) than celebrate the birth of his first-born child.

How will I figure out my destiny based on those lousy facts? Is this what it means to be born free?

For You created my inmost being;

You knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise You because I am fearfully and

Wonderfully made.

—Psalm 139:13

CHAPTER 2

A Song For Mama

Once my daddy had left, I felt as if I had become lost in space. I was lost in the very space that I referred to as home. Suddenly, I felt I was living among strangers in a foreign land. My heart was with Daddy no matter where he had moved to.

Through her deep heartbreak over losing the man she adored, Mom continued to do her best to keep us safe. Her only option for survival for her little family was to go on welfare; not an easy thing in those days.

I’d like to take this time to give you the definition of WELFARE: Government benefits distributed to impoverished persons to enable them to maintain a minimum standard of well being. That sounds pretty, doesn’t it? The way we were treated was not so pretty. Let’s add to that the fact that my parents were divorced and that we were being raised in a church which abhorred such an act, and you can see that we were easily viewed as trash in the kindest way.

I remember one time she had been docked a certain amount from her monthly check because she was thrifty enough to buy an entire case of tomato soup. When the social worker came in and found it under the bed, she claimed that Mom was hiding it from her. One other time, a worker made a surprise visit and found that my uncle (Yes, it really was my uncle) left his cigar in an ashtray. That caused my mom to lose part of her check again.

Mom found a way to send us to a Catholic