Sep

Being a Good Father to Your Child

In order to understand what I mean by a good father, I first need to awaken you a bit by bringing up some negative things, in hopes of illustrating what we’re faced with. To that end it is that I will unveil the negative trends and portrayals of fathers we’ve seen through the years.

Parenting Style
One could argue that the alarmists have focused blame on what’s wrong with our youth and pointed to the parental figures in the home as the culprits, in many cases. While this may have been done many times for different reasons, it is extremely appropriate, at this time, to examine the impact of fathering in our youth’s culture.

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. 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 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, everything cannot be blamed on television. Over the years, our culture has become so liberal that strength and leadership is shunned by many and avoided by most. Very seldom do we see a person who is reflecting real, strong, positive leadership ability being elected to a public office. This goes for the father image as well. Perhaps a strong-willed, God-fearing head of the household projected in either real life or fiction would be damaging to the youth, with his domineering personality, causing children to be subservient and silenced in their true voice and expressions.

I say this is not so! 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. No young man with a weak father figure can identify with the strong paternal image, and so he doen’t truly 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.

Christian Family Ministry
So you’re probably wondering when I’m going to get around to tell you what I thing 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 prefer seeing a strong-willed, man of character pass his child, and in doing so, observe the child somewhat flinching in fear of the repercussions of their actions, than see the reaction of most children to their father today. Call me old fashioned, but that fearful respect for the father is representative of being accountable for the child’s actions, recognizing that the good father represents values.

Protecting your child in a seductive world
The good father is involved in the lives of their children, doing the things we typically image father doing with child. Things such as playing catch with his son, taking him fishing, having that special bond with his daughter, and being strong yet sympathetic figure. It’s his job to do all of these things, but first and foremost he must be the leader of his family. He takes helm of leading the household; providing guidance and direction through the storms the family faces as the years go by.

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