@Vinter
This wasn't in your post but it's an important consideration that bears repeating.
Everything you experience at home shows up in your relationship. Good and bad. Unless you dealt with it beforehand. Your companion and children have the greatest exposure to your strengths and weaknesses. You will afflict more pain upon them than anyone else due to proximity. They see the real you. Unfiltered.
When we talk about character. You're getting a sliver of what happens behind closed doors. The shadow is more pronounced. There's no need to hide it. As a result, you see love and damage in relationships. They don't hold back.
Self-awareness is important. If you're unwilling to see your shortcomings you're resistant to change. You have to consider the impact of your actions on others. You don't want someone unconscientious. You want someone quick to forgive, apologize, and make amends. Someone who listens, hears you, and is other centered. You need to provide the same.
I am on the forum much later tonight than I thought I would be. I will reply to this post tonight and reply the other posts tomorrow.
Sound advice. I many ways I had a good childhood, but it was certainly not without flaws. All I can say is, the way I was brought up in certain areas, is not how I would bring a kid up.
Self acknowledgment is a good thing. I do believe I have self ackowledgment. There are things about myself that took a long time for me to realize, but once I realized them, I also had an urge to do something about it. For example quitting porn, quitting spending money on material gains, comics being the big sinner.
Matthew 6:21
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Many times I read a comic, instead of reading the bible. But God has helped me. I am slowly getting rid of my comics. I pray to God to free me from my enthreallment I have for worldly possessions. the wheels are slowly turning, but they are turning in my favor. That is God's doing. I used to get a kick out of getting a comic for my shelf, now I am relieved when I get space on the shelf.
Self awareness, I believe I have self awereness , I am much more in tune with who I am today, than I was in the past. I do make mistakes, but I can also acknowledge it and I am aware enough to know when I am I out of bounds. I feel it, when I do soemthing that is beneath me and should lead with a better example.
"You don't want someone unconscientious. You want someone quick to forgive, apologize, and make amends. Someone who listens, hears you, and is other centered. You need to provide the same."
That's exactly what I want. I do need to provide the same and I want to. As I write this there is one thing that lingers in my mind. I get easily irritated and do raise my voice. It only lasts for a minute or two just as quick as I get mad I get good again, but I can say some mean things in a couple of minutes. That's one of the things I dislike about myself, because I do know better.
Proverbs 25:28
A man without self-control
is like a city broken into and left without walls.
This has a direct line to my childhood. As a kid if I didn't listen she would slam all the kitchen doors on the kitchen cupboard, because my mom knew I did not like loud noises. My mom is very easy to anger. She could let is fester and suddenly explode over something days after. I am not like that because I hated that as a kid I never knew when she was going to explode the next time.
I just get mad right here right now, buy why get mad at all. Espcially if I find a woman that exudes gentleness and kindness, it would rub off on me and would feel downright ashamed for raising my voice to a woman that only wishes the best for me. So that is something I need to kick now rather than later, because my future wife deserves better.
When it comes to my upbringing I'm I could come up with other examples that may stick out like a sore thumb. I am sure I will open up about it in time.
In my mom's defense she didn't have the best upbringing herself, so in many cases she probably didn't know any better. I know she loves me and even though she was a single mom with low to mediocre income she always managed to give me the same things as the other kids so I didn't wind up looking like the poor kid.