Continued from last month’s bulletin, online at . This article was found on www.fathersforgood.org and was excerpted from Father, the Family Protector by James B. Stenson, available from Scepter Publishers or through his Web site, www.parentleadership.com.
A man also defends his family through what he earns in his work. All the special features of an adult male’s personality, developed from boyhood, can be coordinated toward a single great purpose in life: protection. That is, he doesn’t just provide for his family; he protects them from poverty. He shelters them, takes care of their needs for a roof, food, and clothing. While Dad has a job, the family feels secure. Even in a two-income home, it seems, children sense that Dad is the main provider, and therefore the family’s main protector. [Chaplain’s Note: I would add that a Christian father ought to be the main spiritual leader and provider in his family, even if it is at the expense of being the main provider financially or materially. Too many dads leave it to their wives because they say they are “more spiritual.” Nonsense. Dads need to be just as spiritual as their wives. They are the “priests” of the family.]
4) Moreover, he protects his children from forces that threaten them here and now: drugs, bullies, criminals, unjust aggressors of all types, and potential disasters arising from their inexperience and impulsive mistakes (like dashing out into traffic or playing with matches). For instance, if a father glanced out his living room window and spotted a male stranger chatting with his small daughter, coyly beckoning to her, he would swiftly lunge into defensive action. He’d race out the door, stride aggressively toward the stranger, then confront the man and demand to know what he wanted. With muscles taut, he would stand between his daughter and this potential aggressor, physically shielding her from harm. Another example: When his teenage daughter is being picked up for a date, a father goes out of his way to size up the young man she’s going out with. He wants to meet him—insists on meeting him—to look him in the eye and intuitively size up his intentions and his worth. A father senses a duty to assess any young male who approaches his daughter. An unspoken message seems to pass between them: “She’s my daughter. Treat her nicely, kid, or else..
"... a Christian father ought to be the main spiritual leader and provider in his family ..."
5).”But most of all—and this is crucially important— a father protects his children by strengthening them so they can later protect themselves. In the lives of his children, he asserts loving leadership toward responsible, competent adulthood. It is a father’s mission, the challenge that brings out the best in him, to form in his children the powers and attitudes they will need to succeed in life, to strengthen them so they in turn can later protect themselves and their own loved ones.
So, in his children’s eyes a great father is a lifelong leader and teacher. His protective, empowering lessons about right and wrong live on in the inner lives of his children, long after they’ve left home for good, and indeed long after he has passed to his eternal reward. A great father never stops being a father, for he lives on as a great man in the hearts of his children.
God bless you,