Forgot your password?

“Enter with the password ‘thank you’ make yourselves at home, talking praise, thank Him.  Worship Him.  For God is sheer beauty, all generous in love, loyal always and ever”( Psalms 100:4-5 The Message)

 “The username and password entered do not match.  Please enter correct username and password before proceeding”.

 How many times have you seen that message, or one like it, splashed across your computer screen?

 My mind races, it can’t be the username; I usually use the same one!  It has to be the password, what password did I use when I set up this account?  For the life of me I can’t remember.  I enter one password after another, but none seems to be the right one.  What was I thinking?

 After some time I resort to the link just below the login box.  “Forgot your password?” the helping hand most men avoid as a sign of utter failure.  After all, are we that lame, we can’t remember the password WE created?

The next screen asks us to answer a couple of questions: 

“What was your Mothers maiden name?”  I don’t remember giving that information to this site!  “What was the model of your first car?”  Why do they care?  I cover my sense of failure with sarcasms.

 Finally, I get the message; “Your password was sent to the email on record.”

 Today’s technology has provided a simple similitude.  If we want to experience, or access, the knowledge, tools, pleasures, or relationships offered beyond where we are now, we must have the right password.

 Just as passwords open sites in cyberspace, the password, thank you, opens doors for us in our spiritual walk.

 The United States is one of only a few countries that have a holiday specifically for the purpose of saying thank you.

 Given this emphasis, consider two of my recent experiences:

I stood holding the door as, one after another; the young ladies who made up the cheerleading team, their coaches, and chaperones, stepped off the bus they were traveling on, and passed through the open door into the restaurant ahead of me.  Saying not a word, as they passed, they now stood in line, waiting to be seated.  There were approximately 30 in the group.

 After dinner, my wife and I crossed the street to do s little shopping at the local Target store.  There I encountered a young father struggling to load a few 12 packs of soft drinks on his basket without getting too far from the baby resting in the basket.  Seeing his struggle, I stepped in and helped by moving the products into his waiting basket as he stood silently and watched.  He went on about his shopping as if nothing had happened.

 Although not a scientific study, or even a good representative sample, these two incidents reflect a spreading insensitivity, on the part of persons in our western culture, to the need to acknowledge acts of kindness.  We have forgotten our password, — thank you.

 For the life of us we can’t figure out what it is.  We want what is beyond the login screen of our spiritual life.  We struggle to open the site with every material activity or gift we can think of, but we can’t think of the simple password.

If we continue to concentrate on our own self-interests, we will never know the wonders that wait beyond our present state. 

Romans 15:1-7 gives us clear direction:

Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status.  Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, “How can I help?”  That’s exactly what Jesus did. He didn’t make it easy for himself by avoiding people’s troubles, but waded right in and helped out. “I took on the troubles of the troubled,” is the way Scripture puts it.  .Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it’s written for us. God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever he will do next.  May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all.  Then we’ll be a choir – not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus!  So reach out and welcome one another to God’s glory. Jesus did it; now you do it! (The Message)

As we celebrate our Thanksgiving, think about how we might live up to the charge of Romans 15.  Don’t make it easy on ourselves, look inwardly and ask others, “How can I help?”; when someone, even a total stranger, serves us in some way, repay their kindness with acknowledgement. 

Think about all the God of all creation has done for us.  What sacrifice He made for us, His constant presence doting on children He adores. Acknowledge Him in everything. 

We have the choice, we can be a single voiceless “taker” in this world, and remain forever locked in our present state with no hope of entering into something greater, or we can “join the choir – not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem.” 

Remember your password – thank you.

En servicio como Padre

Dave

The secret of tears

I watched from a reasonable distance as a family, I recently became acquainted with, wept tears of mourning for a wife and mother lost to cancer a few days earlier.

Having been an acquaintance and not fully a part of the inner circle of this family, I was torn on how to respond.

It was easier in the days and months that preceded this event. I could stop by, offer words of encouragement, perhaps offer a prayer or two, and offer to help in any way I could, but in the end the result was the same, a family struggling through their own “vale of tears.”

Tears that would forever change the lives of every family member, and many of those who were in the family’s circle of friends. Tears that in some cases, represent the deep regret that, perhaps, they did not spend more time with their loved one. Other tears may have been of anguish, knowing the one they loved more than anyone would not be there when the awoke the next morning. Still others could be tears of relief, as they watched the long progression of the disease and the slow decline of a once vital person.

When I was a child, the thought of the day was that men should not cry. It was considered a sign of weakness. Young boys were chided for expressing their fears, anger, sorrow, or any other emotion, through tears.

As I review my life, I can honestly say, I never saw my father cry although I have no doubt he shed them in secret.

We were a family, like most, who had our issues and co dependencies, but we were a family who operated with the knowledge of love. My father and mother loved each of their eight children with unconditional love, but tears were not part of my father’s repertoire.

My mother, on the other hand, was not afraid to show her tears. She was a strong woman who could be stern in her discipline, but she was also a woman who learned the value of tears.

Psalm 56:8 says; “you number and record my wanderings; put my tears in your bottle – are they not in your book?”

God, our perfect Father, captures our tears and records each one they are so valuable to Him.

The Apostle Paul, one of the toughest men to ever walk the face of this earth, in my opinion, refers to himself as “serving the Lord in all humility in tears.” Acts 20:10

As modern fathers, we must recognize life is not always going to be a rosy picture for us. We will face adversity, pain, and suffering. We will experience apparent defeat and sudden setbacks. In all these; tears are a valuable part of our healing.

Likewise in times of celebration, our personal and family success, major accomplishments, etc, can bring you to tears of joy and excitement.

I contend to you, fathers, that tears are not at all a sign of weakness. Instead, they are a sign of a truly healthy heart. For each tear carries with it such great emotion and the tools by which the Holy Spirit can cleanse, repair, and build the compassionate heart of a true father.

Take the risk, your vale of tears is one of your greatest assets.

En servicio como Padre

Dave

Your Favorite Veteran – Veterans Day 2009

Remember your Veteran

Once again this Veterans day I am providing a place for readers to tell the story of their favorite veteran.

Most of us had the unfortunate opportunity to have the ultimate sacrifice veteran have made over the years clearly broadcast and brought to mind through the Fort Hood attack and the resulting memorial service. Horrible as it is, it was a clear reminder to all Americans.

Before you go, take a moment to comment on this blog about Your favorite Veteran. My readers and I would be extremely grateful and proud to read about those who have and still are putting their country ahead of their personal ambitions to make our lives a little safer.

I will lift each one up in a prayer of thanksgiving for their sacrifice, and pray for their good health and protection. I further encourage everyone who reads these accounts to do the same. It is the least we can do on this Veterans Day 2009.

God Bless you all and God Bless the United States of America

En Servicio Como Padre

Dave

Thanks to http://www.freerepublic.com for the Picture

Lesson of the Itsy Bitsy Spider

When my daughter was very small, she had a favorite song she would sing, very loudly, often for hours at a time.

 This song is one most, if not all, of us know very well. “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”. Just mentioning the song has many of you singing it right now.

 Like many children, my daughter, when she was first learning the song, replaced some of the correct words she could not remember, with something else so she could continue the song.

 In her case she added the words “whumpa whumpa”. Here is how it went:

 “The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.

Down came the rain and washed the spider out.

Out came the sun and dried up all the rain.

And the whumpa whumpa spider went up the water spout

Down came the rain…..”

The effect of this addition was, it created a closed loop that never reached an ending. On long road trips, this became quite annoying for her brothers who had to sit in the back seat and hear the never ending song. Eventually, eliciting a desperate plea to “make her stop!”

It’s funny how we now look back and cherish some of the annoying things our children do because it is part of what has made them uniquely who they are today.

As fathers we sometimes add a “whumpa whumpa” to how we live our lives.

Physically, emotionally, and spiritually we add a “whumpa whumpa” and get locked into a never ending loop of responses, actions, reactions, thoughts, and etc. This “whumpa whumpa” causes those around us, as well as us, to become frustrated with the way our lives are going.

We keep doing the same things over and over without seeing any change in our lives. In fact, like the siblings in the back seat on a long road trip, we find ourselves digressing into destructive or argumentative behavior and not growing in a positive way.

Many of the American Indian tribes believed that life is a great spiral beginning at birth and ending in the afterlife joined with the Great Spirit. The expectation was always that what you see today you will see again in the future. The trick is that as you complete each circle, in life, you should not be seeing things from the same perspective. You must see things from a higher vantage point or you are not moving closer to the Great Spirit.

If we use our Father God as our example of perfect fatherhood, we will find ourselves constantly searching for new pearls of wisdom to become better fathers. As we seek we will learn more about our Father God and be drawn closer to Him.  Thus we will spiral ever closer and as we complete each circle in life, we will see the past in a different way,

Like when we look back on the annoying actions of our children and cherish them as part of what makes them uniquely who they are, we will be able to look at the things we face today and cherish them, no matter how bad they seem today, as what is forming us into better fathers who are more aligned with the perfect Father God.

Do not allow the “whumpa whumpa”, in your life’s moments, to lock you into a never ending loop of immature fatherhood.

Break free and climb the water spout again.

En Servicio Como Padre

Dave

Natural Light

How many times have you heard someone say, “she has a glow about her” or “he just seems to radiate…”. Most of the time we say these things without much deep thought about what we are actually saying. It just seems like the right thing to say and it describes the feeling we are having at the time.

Over the past few years I have come to believe there is a much deeper connection between our words with the world, particularly the spiritual world, around us.

That being said, you can imagine how excited I was when I read the article in Yahoo News titled “Strange! Humans Glow in Visible Light“. This article describes a study done by scientists in Japan. An excerpt follows:

“scientists in Japan employed extraordinarily sensitive cameras capable of detecting single photons. Five healthy male volunteers in their 20s were placed bare-chested in front of the cameras in complete darkness in light-tight rooms for 20 minutes every three hours from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. for three days.

The researchers found the body glow rose and fell over the day, with its lowest point at 10 a.m. and its peak at 4 p.m., dropping gradually after that. These findings suggest there is light emission linked to our body clocks, most likely due to how our metabolic rhythms fluctuate over the course of the day.” Charles Q. Choi; Special to LiveScience; LiveScience.com – Wed Jul 22, 10:32 am ET

Not only does the human body glow, but virtually all living creatures give off very weak light. Science is finally proving what we have known in spirit for many years.

Genesis 1:26 God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, And, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.” God created human beings; he created them godlike, Reflecting God’s nature. He created them male and female. God blessed them: “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.” (The Message)

Exodus 34:29-30 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai carrying the two Tablets of The Testimony, he didn’t know that the skin of his face glowed because he had been speaking with God. Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, saw his radiant face, and held back, afraid to get close to him. (The Message)

Proverbs 4:18 The ways of right-living people glow with light; the longer they live, the brighter they shine. But the road of wrongdoing gets darker and darker- travelers can’t see a thing; they fall flat on their faces. (The Message)

Fathers, are we not designed to reflect God’s nature? He has made us to follow his example. It is our responsibility to be what God has made us to be. No matter how weak we see our light, we must allow it to glow as the light of right-living people. If we do, we can live a long life showing brightly the love we have for our wives, our children, for others, and especially for our God.

Let your light shine. Glow with love, after all it is natural.

En Servicio Como Padre

Dave

H.O.P.E a Pathway to the Future

Over the past few days I have watched the world news with a new perspective. In the past it would just make me angry to see how the people of this world are being manipulated by a few people in high places.

How could the people of today so easily buy into the arguments that are so obviously tainted and presented in a way that supports the views of a few, while the world, as a whole, is in such pain?

Have we no hope? Then, it hit me; there must be a message in hope we are missing.

As I prayed about hope, a new perspective began to form in my spirit. Hope, although a state of mind is also a metaphor for a process each of us must go through. The world as a whole is in one of the steps of H.O.P.E., but each individual must seek to get through all steps if they can fully understand why they are here on this earth.

I will begin by explaining the four steps;

H – Hosea 10:3

“They go around saying, “Who needs a king? We couldn’t care less about God, so why bother with a king? What difference would he make?” (The Message)

In this step we believe we are capable of everything. We have all the knowledge we need and we are full of self love, self confidence, and pride. We believe we have most, if not all the answers and anyone who disagrees with us is ignorant or at least unenlightened. We are the masters of our lives and have full trust in our own ability to govern and direct our lives.

Many people throughout history have been is this step. I believe that is where America was just prior to the Great Depression. Laws had little meaning; authority of any kind was just a hindrance to what the people wanted to do. Spending was out of control and people thought the end of prosperity could never end. But it did.

The people of Germany were in this stage just prior to World War II. They managed to come out of the debt and demoralization of a loss in World War I and were now well on their way to becoming a world power. No one would ever step on them again. The Jewish people in Germany, and all of Europe for that matter, were some of the most prosperous people in the world. Their skills and influence were unrivaled anywhere, no one would lie to them, they were too aware of the world around them. And along came Hitler.

O – Obadiah 1:7

“All your old partners will drive you to the edge. Your old friends will lie to your face. Your old drinking buddies will stab you in the back. Your world will collapse. You won’t know what hit you”. (The Message)

Human failings; those in whom you thought you could trust; let you down. They didn’t just let you down; they dropped you, and then turned against you. In this step you learn about treachery and betrayal. You found that you did not have all the answers as you thought in the earlier step, now you put your trust in someone who thinks like you. Perhaps it was a catchy campaign slogan, or maybe it was similarities in human endeavor. What ever the connection, you put your trust in another person or group. They turned against you like a jackal after a piece of meat.

I have seen a lot of people in this step in the Church. Even more lately in the business world, with the layoffs and the wild fluctuations in the economy. Putting your trust in another man is doomed to turn out badly and leave you hurting.

P – I Peter 1:22

“Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart” (NKJV)

In this step you enter into obedience. You finally come to the point that you no longer trust in your own ability to make the right choices. You recognize that there must be something more than what you have experienced in life to date. You have failed yourself, other people and theories have failed you, now you must recognize your weakness and turn to the power of a God who is never changing. Consistency and security are the major drivers for you to seek out some relationship with God.

You are looking for healing and you find it in the arms of a loving God.

E – Emanuel

“Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel” (which being interpreted is, “God with us”). (KJ21)

This is the realization of hope. When you finally come to the realization that God is truly with us, when He becomes more than a great and terrible entity that no one can look on much less touch, when intimacy with Jesus becomes reality in you life. This is hope.

God with us means so much more than the name Mary gave a baby. God with us was the proclamation of the journey every man must make from that day forward. The journey through every step of HOPE ending with a personal and intimate relationship with the God of all creation. The journey that moves from love of self to real love.

Someone very close to me, who lives on the other side of our great country, must have been touched by the same spirit that encouraged this blog. In her blog, Joy In the Morning, she writes about the death of hope. But it is, in the end, the realization that “the death of Hope in reality is the death of what I thought should happen and the resurrection of what truly should be”.

There in lies the truth about hope; it is a journey from self dependence to complete dependence. This journey is the process called H.O.P.E.

En servicio como padre
Dave

True Warriors Wear Pink

A few days ago, I happened to wear a very nice pink shirt to the office.  As I settled in to begin the day, a coworker walked past my office; “Good morning Dave” was his greeting, to which I gave an equally cheery retort.  “I takes a real man to wear pink”, were his next words.

 I’ve heard those words before, most often in jest, a kind of friendly banter between men that seems to happen any time more than one man is present in the same place.  This time, though, the words pricked something in me that caused me to ponder the concept as a father.

 It’s not one of those macho things.  I’ve long ago learned there is little in that mind set that really helps a father be what he is meant to be.  It caused me to ask myself; what sets you, as a father, apart from other men?

 It is often in man’s nature to be competitive.  Competition is valued in society today.  The more competitive you are the better the chance to be successful in business.  It is the mantra of the millennial man.  Competition often defines who the world thinks we are. 

 It can’t be all bad.  After all, it is that competitive spirit that helped early man feed and protect his family, but competition only takes a father so far.  At some point, the competition, if too strong, begins to tear away at the relationships with a father’s children and even with his spouse. 

 I have known several men in my years who could rightly be described as a giant.  These men were all over 6 feet 9 inches tall and were imposing in their very presence.  Some were fathers others were married, with no children, and all were noticed when the entered any room.  Today, I still have contact with a couple of them but it is not their sheer size that would cause me to set them apart as a father.  An equally large woman would likely be just as imposing but probably could not be described as a father.  I have known great fathers who were as short as these men were tall.

 My position in life has given me the opportunity to meet many men who have been very successful in their selected career field.  These men are entrusted with large sums of money or large segments of a company.  They have shown their ability to understand business and to encourage others to follow the mission they have conveyed.  They are eloquent in their speech and adept at getting their point across in a manner that is accepted by their most ardent opposition.  Some lead hundreds, others thousands as they guide their company along the road to success.  They are successful by almost any standard but that alone doesn’t set them apart as a father.

 Fatherhood is by all accounts a battle.  When their child is born, a father begins to fight against everything that would attempt to harm or negatively influence his child.  Sometimes the battles are perceived and some are misinterpreted but others are very real.

 The warrior father stands between every potential danger and at the same time guards the pathways to a child’s heart.  He alone holds a secret entrance that can only be unlocked by the keys of influence.  As a child watches their father the influence key unlocks understanding and a child grows in knowledge and stature.

 Clarence Budington Kelland, the American writer of the 20’s, most noted for his fiction and short stories published in magazines of the time, explained it best when he described his father with the following:

 “He didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it”. Clarence Budington Kelland

 Proverbs 4:1-4 describes the power of influence the warrior father has with his child;

1.Listen, friends, to some fatherly advice; sit up and take notice so you’ll know how to live.2.I’m giving you good counsel; don’t let it go in one ear and out the other.3.When I was a boy at my father’s knee, the pride and joy of my mother,4.

He would sit me down and drill me: “Take this to heart. Do what I tell you – live!  (The message)

 The warrior father is differentiated by the tenacity by which he fights for what he loves and by the compassion which he metes upon his family.  The child of the warrior father learns by his example and in the long run recognizes that it really does take a real man to wear pink.

En servicio como padre

Dave

Honor your father

Ephesians 6:1-4

1 Children, do what your parents tell you. This is only right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” is the first commandment that has a promise attached to it, namely, 3 “so you will live well and have a long life.” 4 Fathers, don’t exasperate your children by coming down hard on them. Take them by the hand and lead them in the way of the Master. (The Message)

As this Fathers Day approaches, I find myself reflecting on many things.  I think of my own father, how in many ways he was distant and a man of few words.  He was hard working and was skilled in so many areas I only wish, today, that I had spent more time with him learning from him.  He was not a perfect father, no, far from it.  He was quick to temper and often disciplined out of temper rather than strategic learning.  He was not formally educated and did not encourage me to excel in school.  He was not rich and was not a master of financial investment or budgetary restraint.

No, my father was not perfect, but he loved his children.  No matter how much discipline he meted out, or how much he would yell at us when we pushed his buttons, we all knew he loved us.

My most vivid memory of my father was on the day I was leaving to go into the military.  It was during the Vietnam War, and I left a perfectly good job to sign up for the military.  I was certain I would be drafted and would have little control over the branch of service I would enter, so I chose to get ahead of the game and enlist.  When I told my parents, they were livid.  They could not understand why I would enlist and not take my chances on the draft.  My mother was so mad she would not talk to me.  My father, trying to keep the peace in his own way, went to his work shed and made himself scarce.  I felt my whole family was against my decision.

Early the next morning I boarded a Greyhound bus headed for the big city of Phoenix Arizona where I would go through my final activities before heading off to basic training.  I said my goodbyes to my girlfriend the night before so I was by myself at 6:00 a.m. as I looked around the town of my birth for what could be the last time. 

From the bus window I scanned the small Arizona town until my eyes fell upon a man standing in the shadows.  It was my father.  I hurried off the bus like a salmon swimming up stream against the flow of others boarding the same bus.  As I walked up to my father, he extended a hand shake, his way of saying goodbye.  

He then reached in his pocket and pulled out a ten dollar bill.  It was all he ever carried.  To him it was his lifeline. He used that ten dollars to buy his tobacco and papers to roll his own cigarettes.  It was money he kept in case of an emergency.  With a family of eight kids and a janitors position, it was a lot of money to him.  With that he stuffed the bill in my pocked and said “thought you might need this”.

Those words though not eloquent or ground shaking in the least, were powerful to my soul.  My father took all he had and invested it in me, knowing I would not fail.  His few words were supportive in that he arose early and made his way to the bus stop in support of what I was doing.  In those few words he more than communicated his love to me.

I only saw my father a few times in the years that followed that night.  Life had taken me far from home and my visits were few and short.  One day as I arrived home from work my wife met me and said she just received a phone call that my father was gravely ill and the family was being called in to see him for the last time. 

I did not get home in time, my father died while I was in route, by train, to my home town.

Was my father a hero?  Was my father a master of fatherhood?  No, not in the eyes of any outsider who knew little of him.  But to me, and to my brothers and sisters, he was all of those things and more.  He was a man who sacrificed all to show his love.

En servicio como padre

Dave

Please take a moment to honor a father your have come to know as a hero.  Tell me and my readers about this father, in the comments below, and we will help you honor him this weekend in our prayers and thoughts.  Then email this link to others that they might also receive the promise of Ephesians 6:2.

https://dadtalk.wordpress.com

A Father’s Choice

Sometimes I wonder if I have made some really bad choices in my life.  I was raised to believe that we have to live the consequences of our choices, no matter if we were sorry for them or not.

Then I think about my own children.  If they make bad choices, I as a Father, want them to experience the weight of these choices only to the extent that they recognize their mistake and learn to avoid them in the future.  I could/would not stand aside and allow them to go under just to learn a lesson.  If I have the resources to help them out of their circumstance;  I will, and have had opportunity to, do so.

I don’t think I am better than God.  If I would use all my resources so would He.  His resources are limitless.  If God is for us, who can be against us?(Romans 8:31)

Our God will help us through anything we can face.  He will use all His resources and will restore all we have lost seven times over. (Proverbs 6:31) If only we will recognize the unique relationship He longs to have with us. Think of the relationship you strive to have with your children, why would He be any different in His desire for you?

Lord help us to know where to turn.  What is our next step?  Even when all doors seem to be closed, make it clear to us what we need to do or be looking for at this present time.  Amen

En Servicio Como Padre

Dave

The Windshield and Love for a Child

 

 

As I was driving through an industrial section of town, a few days ago, I happened to notice a windshield repair company sitting next to, of all things, a child care.

Thinking the site a little odd, I gave a moment of thought to the meaning of both.

I thought of the reasons for there to be a windshield repair establishment in this part of town.  With the industrial nature of the area, it is not uncommon for sand and relatively large gravel to coat the street, more than likely having fallen from large dump trucks conveying sand and gravel from nearby pits for use in manufacturing facilities in the area.

These grains of sand and gravel can be picked up by tires of passing vehicles and rocketed into the windshield of other vehicles.  Each grain of sand striking the glass on oncoming vehicles digs into the smooth surface gouging a very small, almost imperceptible, piece of glass.  Each strike rendering damage that is almost impossible to repair.

With each successive grain of sand, another crater is created, moment by moment, day upon day, the onslaught continues as the drivers pass by unaware of the damage being done.  Slowly the accumulation of gouges and craters take away a portion of the smooth, transparent surface of the windshield, until there are more damaged areas than not.

The final recourse is to replace the windshield altogether and discard the damaged one.  The only way to avoid repeated damage to the new windshield is to take another path to work.

The child care, not unlike the glass repair establishment, takes in children in varying stages of injury.  Some are injured by well meaning parents who, in an effort to control or guide their children, use harsh words or cutting criticism that tear away small pieces of the shining new surface of an innocent child’s heart.  In most cases parents don’t intend harm.  They are running late for work, or the traffic is heavy, they are working in a high stress situation and the child is not cooperative.  Sometimes they are just trying to help the child avoid the same mistakes they have made themselves.  Perhaps their child will be more successful than they are.

What ever the reason, moment by moment, day upon day, the onslaught continues, as parents go about their lives unaware of the subtle damage their words are doing.  Each word, however intended, creating gouges and craters in the pure shining heart of a child, created by God, and given everything necessary to be successful in life.  Slowly this accumulation of gouges and craters tears away enough of the heart of the child that they slip into something they were not created to be.

There is no way to remove the old, damaged heart of a child and replace it with a new one.  Every attempt to do so will, in fact, drive the child further from who they are and into someone they are not.

Fortunately the child, unlike the windshield, can be repaired.  As parents we must pay close attention to the words we use and the actions we take.  We must audit our intentions and assure they are driven by love and not some other reason.

We are told in Proverbs “Pleasant words are a honeycomb, Sweet to the soul and healing to the bones”. (Proverbs 16:24)

Nothing is truer; we can control the words we speak.  If we understand the impact of what we say, we can make a difference in the lives of our children.

Like a shiny new windshield, we hold, in our children, a certain amount of satisfaction.  Knowing we can safely see what the future brings.

Keep them clean and mind the roads you direct them down and your words of love will heal their broken and pitted hearts.

En servicio como padre

Dave