What It Means To Be A Good Father
For me to convey the meaning of a good father, I feel it’s necessary to first bring up some alarmingly ugly facts that should not only get your attention, but also give you a sense of what we’re up against. In other words, to tell what a good father is, I believe I must first pursue the bad direction in which our fatherly images have traveled in the past few decades.
Parent’s Purpose
People can say that alarmists have always stood up and said that things were not right with our young people and pointed to the father images and the homes in general as the culprits. Yes, this has been done many times in various parts of the world and during a great many different time periods.
Ask anyone on the street today what a good father is, and unless you’re only polling a group of people who have a similar world view on the need for strong parent figures, you may be shocked by some of the responses. They might tell us that the father is the one who usually tried to get the sympathy of the other family members and especially the attention of his wife. He may go about this by playing vicitim. TV sitcoms and movies have set this as standard expectations for the father figure in recent years.
I digress, as television can only be held responsible to an extent. The liberalization of our society has perverted the idea of leadership and strength, lampooning it to the point that we’ve been softened as a society, as most people avoid the lead role. Very seldom do we see a person who is reflecting real, strong, positive leadership ability being elected to a public office. We can say the same fore the father image, as well. If we see a strong-charactered, God-fearing head of a household reflected in real life or in fiction, we will immediately come to the conclusion: he is going to scar his children by his domineering personality and make the some type of servile individuals for the rest of their lives.
I can’t refute this claim boldly enough! Leadership can only be passed along through example. Unfortunately, there seems to be no one to perpetuate this image as we have lost almost all of our examples as fatherly leadership is concerned. The young man grows up with a weak father and does not have anyone with whom to identify, so he does not know what a real man is. He may see his mother taking on an overwhelming amount of responsibility, as his father grossly neglects both his family and his responsibilities.
Family Ministry
So you’re probably wondering when I’m going to get around to tell you what I thing a good father is. Surely by describing what a bad father lacks, gives many clues as to what a good father is. He should certainly be just the opposite of a weak, poor father. I would much rather see a strong-character, righteous man walk by his children, and in doing so, observe them somewhat flinching as they became fearful that he might just swat them, then see the reaction of most children to their father today. Maybe I’m a bit old fashioned, but I really feel children of all ages should have a type of fearful respect for their fathers: not because he is going to harm them physically, but because they have been brought up to the point that they dread him giving them even a glance of disdain.
Protecting your child in a seductive world
A good father does the things we traditionally picture a father doing with their child. That is, play ball with his son, take him fishing, have a close father daughter relationship with his girls, and all in all, be a kind and sympathetic person. He should do all these things, yes, but he must first and foremost be the family leader. He takes helm of leading the household; providing guidance and direction through the storms the family faces as the years go by.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
