What It Means To Be A Good Father

Posted by green baby on September 17, 2009

To explain what I feel a good father should be, I must first point out some negative things and hope that they will not only alarm you who are reading this text but also give you a better idea of what we are up against. Otherwise stated, to define a good father, I feel it’s necessary to follow the path of the parental figure has traveled in our society over the years.

Parent’s Purpose
People can say that alarmists have always stood up and said that things were not right with our young people and pointed to the father images and the homes in general as the culprits. While this may have been done many times for different reasons, it is extremely appropriate, at this time, to examine the impact of fathering in our youth’s culture.

Ask anyone on the street today what a good father is, and unless you’re only polling a group of people who have a similar world view on the need for strong parent figures, you may be shocked by some of the responses. You might hear that the father typically gets the sympathy of the rest of the family members and especially the attention of his spouse. He may go about this by playing vicitim. TV sitcoms and movies have set this as standard expectations for the father figure in recent years.

Of course, everything cannot be blamed on television. The liberalization of our society has perverted the idea of leadership and strength, lampooning it to the point that we’ve been softened as a society, as most people avoid the lead role. Very seldom do we see a person who is reflecting real, strong, positive leadership ability being elected to a public office. We can say the same fore the father image, as well. Perhaps a strong-willed, God-fearing head of the household projected in either real life or fiction would be damaging to the youth, with his domineering personality, causing children to be subservient and silenced in their true voice and expressions.

I say this is not so! The only way one learns true leadership and strength early in life is by example. Unfortunately, we have lost almost all of our examples as far as fatherly leadership is concerned, so there is no one to perpetuate this image. How is a young man to know what a real man is if he grows up with a weak father? He sees the dad allowing the good mother of the home to carry on his responsibilities, while he grossly neglects the family in many different ways.

Christian Youth Home
I am sure that at this time you are wondering if I am ever going to get around to telling you what I think a good father is. By describing a bad father, I am surely telling you what a good father should be. The good father is the antithesis of the weak and poor father. I would prefer seeing a strong-willed, man of character pass his child, and in doing so, observe the child somewhat flinching in fear of the repercussions of their actions, than see the reaction of most children to their father today. Maybe I’m a bit old fashioned, but I really feel children of all ages should have a type of fearful respect for their fathers: not because he is going to harm them physically, but because they have been brought up to the point that they dread him giving them even a glance of disdain.

Protecting your child in a seductive world
The good father is involved in the lives of their children, doing the things we typically image father doing with child. That is, play ball with his son, take him fishing, have a close father daughter relationship with his girls, and all in all, be a kind and sympathetic person. It’s his job to do all of these things, but first and foremost he must be the leader of his family. He takes helm of leading the household; providing guidance and direction through the storms the family faces as the years go by.

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