his post will comment on our children’s father and how he worked lots of hours and still took time to read to our children as much as he could. He did tea parties as Daddy with our girls, and built rockets with our son. He built a great play house all three children enjoyed greatly as well as the home they lived in. He may not have spent lots of time in it with them, but he did spend some time in it. The only reason he wasn’t “playing” too much was because he was teaching them that learning and work could be “play” on some levels and that it is a blessing to be able to work and learn… work and learning can be fun with the right attitude…building a fence became an opportunity to teach a boy how to drive an old pick up from one fence post to the next. They had lots of laughs and Dad enjoyed being able to teach his son about how things work while they made work as fun as they could. Plants were always a family affair whether inside or out… it was a fun time for all our children as they learned from him.
In thinking about fathers…my father, my father-in-law, my children’s father, and our grandchildren’s fathers…each man has had his own unique role as a father of the next generation. All of these men provide/provided for their children in all the ways good fathers do. They were/are not “typical” men after hours of work at their paid jobs. Each one of these men met the emotional needs of their children in different ways…each era’s expectations have played a role in this, and yet none of them have met/are meeting these needs in the typical ways of many of their peers.
These fathers have done their best within the limitations of their Adamic falleness…they are types and shadows of the perfect Father God. Eventually children have to realize that they must put their ultimate hope in God. God has used these men as they are in the lives of their children.
It is a good day to remember to give thanks to God our Father for the blessing of fathers everywhere who strive and have striven to honour God with their lives.