Father

(Prelude: I talked about this on the first Sammy podcast about how the assignment was to define a common term in your own words and try to fully understand what it means so I chose the word "father". 9/10/15)

    Father can be a scary word if you are not ready to be one. Father can be defined as “a man in relation to his natural child”. That definition is simple and unassuming enough, right? Let’s take a look at what it really means to be a father. Being a father means being present, knowledgeable and supportive. 

    Being present in your child’s life is the least you could do, but it’s also the most important thing you can do. A dad’s presence is a present. Donald Glover said in a song; “If you’re a father, you should stick around if you could/Cause even if you’re bad at it, you get Tiger Woods/Or MJ/We warriors, we all need senseis”. What Glover is saying is that even if you are a bad father like Wood’s or Jackson’s the kids might turn out to be great at something. I worked at a camp where approximately 80% of the kids do not have their father in their lives and life is automatically so much harder for them than it needs to be. They don’t have a father to look up to so they know how to be a man like taking responsibility and treating women right. The kid doesn’t have someone to play sports with or to tuck them in at night. The child may follow in their father’s footsteps and leave their own children and makes a never ending cycle of hurt and loneliness. A mother can only do so much by herself and needs a father to step in where she cannot.

    Now that we know the father should be present, the children should use this resource and get the most out of the father. Fathers should know a lot about the important stuff in life and just as importantly, the not so important stuff. They should know things their kids never knew they needed to know like “Almonds are a member of the peach family”. Also, they need to know how to teach fixing things, whether that be cars or relationships. Fathers need to know these things so that their children can come to them for any advice or questions on any number of things. This way you can instill good thought processes unto them instead of the kids going to their not so experienced friends. It is true you can ask for advice from others, but you know your dad always has the best for you in mind. 

    The last part of being a father is being supportive. A father needs to be supportive by encouraging their children in all their crazy, unattainable ideas. The father cannot simply hand them their ideas and how to achieve them. The child needs to chase their own dreams by initiating the process and making some progress. Fathers need to do this because when the kid fails they will learn from it. The father still needs to be cheering them on throughout the dream chasing from the “sideline”. They not only have to be supportive emotionally, but also in the checkbook. The fathers need to provide the whole family with food and a fit home.

    All these things and more are provided by someone who you may not know, but knows you better than anyone. I am talking about God the Father. An earthly father makes mistakes, but a heavenly Father is perfect. He is always with you, knows everything (because he made it) and supports you in not so obvious ways. God is the father all fathers aspire towards.