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. To that end it is that I will unveil the negative trends and portrayals of fathers we’ve seen through the years.
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 no doubt, has been done throughout time and is not necessarily always spot on, but the parental duty of a father leaves a powerful shadow on their child.
Today we could ask almost anyone on the street what a good father is really like, and unless we were speaking to the very few individuals who seem to think that we need a strong family leader, the answers would probably be somewhat shocking. You might hear that the father typically gets the sympathy of the rest of the family members and especially the attention of his spouse. He may do this with some type of childish action or even some form of hypochondriac procedure. This I imagine has been drilled into our population by the one-eyed monster, we call television, that graces most all our homes.
Of course, we can’t blame everything on TV. Through the years, our society has become liberal to the degree where strong leadership is feared by many, and at the best, avoided by the vast majority. 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. To my dismay, nearly all the examples of paternal leadership is concerned, have disappeared, so we are left without much to perpetuate this image. 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 sees the dad allowing the good mother of the home to carry on his responsibilities, while he grossly neglects the family in many different ways.
Family Ministry
I am sure that at this time you are wondering if I am ever going to get around to telling you what I think a good father is. By describing a bad father, I am surely telling you what a good father should be. 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 should do some of the things that we commonly picture a father doing. This includes teaching his kids to ride a bike, playing ball or taking them fishing; cultivating the bond between himself and his daughters, and being a strong, yet also a sympathetic figure. He can be all of these things and at the same time, be a true example and the leader of his family. He has to take the helm of leadership and guide the household through the storms it is going to face as the years go by.
