The Importance Of The Father…
Proverbs 4:1-10 (Amplified Bible)
1HEAR, MY sons, the instruction of a father, and pay attention in order to gain and to know intelligent discernment, comprehension, and interpretation [of spiritual matters]. 2For I give you good doctrine [what is to be received]; do not forsake my teaching. 3When I [Solomon] was a son with my father [David], tender and the only son in the sight of my mother [Bathsheba], 4He taught me and said to me, Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments and live. 5Get skillful and godly Wisdom, get understanding (discernment, comprehension, and interpretation); do not forget and do not turn back from the words of my mouth. 6Forsake not [Wisdom], and she will keep, defend, and protect you; love her, and she will guard you. 7The beginning of Wisdom is: get Wisdom (skillful and godly Wisdom)! [For skillful and godly Wisdom is the principal thing.] And with all you have gotten, get understanding (discernment, comprehension, and interpretation). 8Prize Wisdom highly and exalt her, and she will exalt and promote you; she will bring you to honor when you embrace her. 9She shall give to your head a wreath of gracefulness; a crown of beauty and glory will she deliver to you.10Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings, and the years of your life shall be many.
When I think of the role of a father I always think of the man that leads the family that protects and teaches his children. As I sat tonight and thought about my father I thought about how he would tickle me until I could not breath and how he would talk me to death as a prelude to a beating (in my head all the while I wished he would just whip me and get it over with already). I think about a train ride we had together when I came home on leave from the Air Force where he humbled himself and asked for my forgiveness for mistakes he had made, in my younger years. I remember how he took us to restaurants at an early age and taught us to appreciate and value the finer things. I remember the joys and the pains, but I remember him being in the house while I grew up.
So many of our children are not afforded this opportunity, to grow up knowing their father. They grow up not knowing what falling in love for the first time should be like (because a little girl’s first love is her daddy). They grow up not knowing how to transition from boys to men. The role of a dad is irreplaceable. I remember last year on Father’s day in church as a ministry in dance took place and my daughter watched and listened to the words of the song where a daughter was thanking her father for being there (present) in her life she broke down and cried uncontrollably. My heart broke for what I knew she was suffering through. I was so overwhelmed I e-mailed my Pastor who is our family’s spiritual father to share my child’s heart ache and emptiness, He responded immediately and stepped in to take her to lunch and talked with her. He spent time with her that she had missed. He sowed into her in a way only a Father could. I was ever so grateful.
You see no matter what you may think about your relationship with your baby’s mama, former spouse or otherwise, ALL children need a Father. They need the wisdom that only a father can provide. They need to feel as if you care and you are their protector and hero, even in your imperfection. They need to know that you value them, for who they are to you and that you will always be there and that nothing can come between you two. Realize that there is a child out there with your DNA, maybe not in the natural sense but most certainly in the spirit of you being their father. Don’t let them down…they need you they are counting on you to be all the dad that they need!
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