Each day at our house is like Ground Hog’s Day. My husband gets Arabella off to school. My two year old starts yelling from his room, “Mommy, wheres ares you?”, while my three year old sleeps soundly until later in the morning. When everyone is awake our morning routine is eat, potty, play with each other, fuss with each other. Then in the afternoon, our routine continues eat, potty, play with each other, fuss with each other. After nap, yet again, eat, potty, play, fuss. Besides the occasional injury and sickness, we have pretty predictable daily activites and conversations. Just recently, I have noticed one topic of conversation that comes about often, that is, talking about Daddy. In the morning my son asks, “Where’s Daddy”. At the doctor’s office my three year old ask, “Do Daddy come heres?”. Other daddy talk is usually, “Daddy loves cars”, “Does Daddy eat carrots”, “I hear Daddy’s truck”, “Daddy teaches”, “Is Daddy at work”, “Daddy likes the Tigers”. All day long my children think about and talk about their Daddy. This has caused me to think about what great responsibility a dad has to his children. A Dad’s love, attention, affection, and discipline is vital in a child’s life. Don’t misunderstand me, a mom’s influence, example, and love is also extremely important. But think about in your own life, how your dad’s actions still have great impact on your life.
In Josh McDowell’s book, “The Father Connection”, he writes about forty - two, individual counseling appointments with junior and senior high kids. He says, “Their number one question was, “Josh, what can I do about my dad?” When I asked what they meant, they made statements like, “He never has time for me,” “He never takes me anywhere,” “He never talks to me,”and “He never does anything with me.” Josh adds that out of forty-two students, only one student said they felt like they could actually talk to their dad. Josh goes on to say, “this kind of love famine can affect both parents and children, creating a vicious self-perpetuating cycle in which parents who are starved for love raise children who are even hungrier for love. And the results can be devastating.” In the book, Norm Wakefield says, “You can’t hug your kids enough, it doesn’t matter how old or how big they are; no one outgrows the need for affection. There is awesome power in a simple thing like a hug, a wink, and a whispered or pantomimed, “I love you!”.
Think about how we treasure the gifts we got for Christmas or maybe covet the gifts we didn’t get. What a bigger deal it is to treasure our children because they are a gift from God. Ephesians 6 starts out with the command for children to honor and obey their parents, and then continues with, “And you, FATHERS, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.” I love the phrase, “bring them up in”, not just “talk to them about” but instead raise them in the truth by living the truth in front of them. For dad’s this is loving unconditionally like Christ, being slow to anger, showing grace and forgiveness, being consistent in discipline when needed, unselfishly giving of time and affection (Matthew 19:14).
Psalms 127 says, “The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. I love to think about Warrior Dad’s loving their little arrows and sending them into the world to penetrate it with the gospel of Christ. So all of the “Daddy” talk in my home has reminded me to thank the Lord for my “Warrior” and little “Arrows” and to be constant in my prayer that through Christ they will grow together in a healthy, loving, fruitful relationship for His glory.
