Just For Fathers
Being the Glory of your Children
“Children’s children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers.” ~Prov. 17:6
God has been so good to give us a natural love for our children and a natural love in our children for us. But this natural love can, over time, become cooled and even grows cold in the hustle and bustle of every day living. It needs attention and cultivation to build upon the foundation that God has naturally given. Like a man's conscience, also provided by God, if it is not cultivated and developed, it will too soon become ineffective.
It has been said by individuals who have studied the change in the American culture and its correspondence to changes in the American family, that as America left its rural lifestyle and become more industrialized and urbanized, the family began to suffer. Principally, the relationships of parents with their children took a big hit. Families became separated, as they no longer worked together on the family farm or in the family business. Fathers left home and went to work in town and children were no longer working alongside their fathers.
Now, this is not a writing to advocate that everyone abandon the cities and move to a family farm. I understand that is not everyone’s call and life in the city can be God-glorifying as well. Additionally, I don’t mean to fall prey to the idea that the environment is the cause. However, we need to pay attention to the fact that in time, other things, activities, and/or people began to replace the father in the children’s eyes and lives. Fathers lost their “glory” in the lives of their children. That “glory”, today, is often regularly lost among farm families and even homeschooling families. The issue is more internal than external.
All of us need to take a step back and look at how are relationship is developing with our children – our sons and daughters. Are the circumstances of your life driving the amount of involvement or lack of involvement in your daughter’s life? Make the commitment today to retain or regain the glory in your daughter’s life. If you do a job where you cannot take her with you, then plan an activity where she is the special one you spend time with. Make her a part of your life and you will always be a part of hers – because, “the glory of children are their fathers.”
~David Barrett, Author Fathers and Daughters: Raising Polished Cornerstones |
