Unconditional Love
 
I was thinking about my parents this morning and of their unconditional love for me. If there ever was a son who tried and tested his parents 'last' nerve, that would definitely be me. Boy, do I have some stories. Many of them I don't think I can actually publish, but I have a few that I can. Here is an example.
 
My parents thought they could 'straighten' me out by sending me to a private boarding school when I was in the 9th grade. They sent me to Saint Paul High School in Covington Louisiana where there were boys literally from all over the world. Little did Mom and Dad know that their "naive" son would learn many tricks from all the 'problem' boys that were sent there. I guess it was pretty much like going to prison, where you learn from the older criminals.

Brother Richard was in charge of my dormitory and boy, did I and a few friends give him a taste of hell. We actually made the man cry. (Brother Richard, if you actually run across this, i want to apologize to you for all the anxiety I put you through.) One example of my escapades was our covert cafeteria operation. There were five of us. Four from my dorm and one junior from another dorm. We stole the master keys from one of the maintenance men and decided to make good of it. Now what do growing boys need more than anything else? FOOD AND LOTS OF IT! We made a plan to sneak out of our rooms and meet at a certain point on campus and see if we would get caught. There were security guards patrolling the grounds and we wanted to see if we could move around freely and not get caught. That was successful.  So then we decided to try the key on the back door of the cafeteria. IT WORKED! We got inside (this was before the moon landing, so there were no cameras or alarms as of yet.) and we munched on some food in the fridge. Then we went back to bed. The next night we did the same. We go bolder and bolder, even cranking up the stove and cooking a fantastic breakfast. (It always tastes better when it's forbidden) Well that in itself is stealing, but we really got greedy and started taking food out of the cafeteria and  bringing it to our rooms. We had these beds where you could lift up the mattress and there was storage space. We all had enough food to cater a large party. Well, we didn't really have our plans thought out completely and eventually the loss of food starting adding up to the point where it had gotten the attention of the authorities. One night we were just getting ready to sit down to an incredible breakfast we cooked up and the doors shot open and there was Brother Richard and the security guards. I thought I might take some of the edge off of his anger by offering him some thick sliced, extra crispy bacon and grits, but he flat turned me down.
 
We were taken back up to his office where he cried and lectured us for over an hour and then made us grab our ankles and I got a butt paddling that I still remember to this day. For the rest of the year we were all on probation (thank God we only had a couple of months left). Over the summer, my parents realized that I was worse off than before I went to Saint Paul HS, so I stayed home and started the 10th grade at South Cameron High School. After that year, we moved to Lake Charles, the big city of about 80K inhabitants. That is where I really got into trouble.
 
Oh, I almost forgot where I was going with this. UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. I can tangibly relate to the concept because of the love my parents had for me. They NEVER gave up on their son. I thank God for the parents He gave me. They made plenty of mistakes, but love covers a multitude of sins. Thank you God for showing me Your unconditional love through Whitney and Clara Broussard.

--David