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Some thoughts about fathers,good and bad 6/8/2005 6:51:09 PM
Can apply to mothers also;-) Some thoughts about fathers. In the early years when I was teaching the Bible to ninth graders I learned a very valuable lesson.
We must be careful not to assume all fathers are good. Of course in this present culture, we are more aware of it than I was 30 years ago. Yet even today very young children are not as aware in some instances and care should be taken when we paint all fathers with the broad brush of "Good".
This is why I am against people likening there fathers to God. Or teaching children to pray to their Father in heaven just like they would their own Daddy! This is wrong, because too many Dads are abusive, and to give very young children the analogy that god is like their father is a terrible injustice to God.
One child said to me" Should I hate god the same way I do my own father? " That really shook me. I went on to find out that his father was in jail for almost killing his mother, and destroying most of the house with fire.
I had a totally wonderful father, and was very blessed to have a great relationship with him until he died. We never had one bad word pass between us. He was such a happy mild mannered person, with a wonderful sense of humor and also a deep thinker that had a marvelous philososphy about life. He wouldn't know how to be mean. In fact my mother who was like a saint (a very good one;-) could be mean, but not my dad!
So I had a very skewed idea of what father's could be like for a very long time. When I did become aware that all father's weren't good, like mine, I didn't give it much thought accept to feel sorry that others weren't as lucky as me.
Then in my own marriage I discovered how brutal a husband and father could really be. One of the main reasons for my divorce. Of course now I know that many fathers are not only cruel but molest their children and many times scar them for life.
To be fair and before all father's put me on their hate list, mother's can be every bit as cruel etc. However I wrote this because of the relationship
people have with God as their Father, and the mistake many make in telling their children that He is just like their own father. I appeal to your good sense and ask you not to do that. God is to be revered, not treated like any other father, not even if yours is great.
I know most father's are wonderful and should be given more recognition for what they do. Most of the men I know are great dads, and I honor them and wish each one of them a very well deserved Happy Father's Day.
