Understanding the Purpose and Power of Men

Understanding the Purpose and Power of Men

3. A Good Father Loves His Children

Many parents think love means providing their children with clothes, food, and shelter. That‘s merely a natural and moral duty. Anyone with common sense and a little bit of

conscience would buy food. Love is much more than that. There are fathers who pay the rent for their children, but don‘t go to visit them. There are fathers who buy their children Christmas gifts, but send them with somebody else. Buying things for your k ids doesn‘t necessarily mean you love them. It may mean you feel guilty about not

Love is

not buying

gifts. It is

you

being a

gift.

fulfilling your responsibility to them. Some men don‘t even want to do that. They don‘t pay child support, so the courts have to deal with them. Love is not buying gifts. Love is you being a gift. The Bi ble tells us that our heavenly Father so loved the world that He became a revelation of that love in Jesus Christ. There fore, if a man is really a father, he doesn‘t just send gifts. He sends himself. That‘s the essence of lov e. Love also means correcting, chastening, and reproving your children when they need it. We‘ll take a closer look at these responsibilities in coming sections. However, let me say here that some children are begging to be corrected, but their fathers don ‘t have any sense to realize it. Some children hate their fathers because they let them do whatever they want. The fathers think the children will do fine on their own. They say, ―My child is old enough to handle it,‖ while their children are thinking, ―I need help, Daddy! I don‘t know the right values in life. I don‘t have standards to judge by. I‘m looking to you to give me some guidelines, and you‘re tell ing me, ‗D ecide for yourself. ‘‖ Loving your children means setting standards for them. Life today is very complex and confused. Children need someone who can tell them, ―This is the way in which to go.‖ You need to give your children a love that instills eternal val ues. I‘ve talked to parents who were concerned because their child was wayward. ―I don‘t k now what happened. I gave him

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