Defining What It Means To Be A Good Father
19 September 2009To explain what I feel a good father should be, I must first point out some negative things and hope that they will not only alarm you who are reading this text but also give you a better idea of what we are 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
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.
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. The group might tell you that fathers usually try to get the sympathy of other family members, including their wives. He may do this with some type of childish action or even some form of hypochondriac procedure. Of course, the all-powerful television has hammered this image home in it’s portrayal of the idiot, pathetic, subservient father and husband.
Of course, we can’t blame everything on TV. 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. 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! The only way one learns true leadership and strength early in life is by example. Unfortunately, we have lost almost all of our examples as far as fatherly leadership is concerned, so there is no one 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 may see dad refusing many responsibilities and neglect his family in many other ways, only for the good mother to be left to do it all.
Youth Home
By now, you’re wondering if I’m ever going to describe what I think makes up a good father. By describing a bad father, I am surely telling you what a good father should be. The good father is the antithesis of the weak and 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. 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 has to take the helm of leadership and guide the household through the storms it is going to face as the years go by.
