{"id":1608,"date":"2009-06-26T16:37:39","date_gmt":"2009-06-26T23:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eaf.net\/mvp\/?p=1608"},"modified":"2012-04-04T07:49:07","modified_gmt":"2012-04-04T14:49:07","slug":"fathers-and-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/2009\/fathers-and-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Fathers and Children"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;re almost a week past Father&#8217;s Day in the USA.<\/p>\n<p>My heart aches for the children whose dads treat them unjustly. I have observed that far too often, even in Christian homes. Shame!<\/p>\n<p>So here are two tips for dads:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Nurture your children; don&#8217;t provoke them.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t exasperate your children or they&#8217;ll lose heart.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Do any of the following flaws (or sins) describe how my children experience (or just perceive) me?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>too proud to apologize\n<li>too busy to give positive attention\n<li>too upset to listen to reason\n<li>too suspicious to imagine good\n<li>too demanding to be generous\n<li>too selfish to share\n<li>too hypocritical to live by the same standard\n<li>too stubborn to change\n<li>too blind to avoid favoritism\n<li>too wounded to offer healing\n<li>too negative to recognize good\n<li>too carnal to model the Heavenly Father\n<li>too inconsistent to be just\n<li>too unpredictable to be dependable\n<li>too angry to see clearly\n<li>too vengeful to forgive\n<li>too unpleasant to be cheerful\n<li>too tough to be kind\n<li>too rigid to be flexible\n<li>too insecure to back down\n<li>too &#8220;right&#8221; to value a different view\n<li>too bossy to serve\n<li>too self-centered to do something another&#8217;s way\n<li>too mature to play\n<li>too tense to relax<\/ul>\n<p>If you think your child is too young to catch on to these things, don&#8217;t kid yourself!<\/p>\n<p>And even if your child hasn&#8217;t caught on yet, your Heavenly Father has! And He will make you pay for being unjust to your children, especially the little ones.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, those two tips with which I started?<\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;re actually commands&#8230;from God:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"background-color:#99ff99\"><p>&#8220;And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord&#8221; (Ephesians 6:4).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged&#8221; (Colossians 3:21).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Fathers, how we treat our children influences their perception of the Heavenly Father. Check this out:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"background-color:#99ff99\"><p>&#8220;Like as a father&#8230;his children, so the LORD&#8230;&#8221; (Psalm 103:13).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>OK, dads, I offer a question to help guide you in your day-to-day interaction with your children:<\/p>\n<p><center><b><font color=\"#ff0000\">How can I show<br \/>\nthe Heavenly Father&#8217;s heart<br \/>\nto my children?<\/font><\/b><\/center><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;re almost a week past Father&#8217;s Day in the USA. My heart aches for the children whose dads treat them unjustly. I have observed that far too often, even in Christian homes. Shame! So here are two tips for dads: Nurture your children; don&#8217;t provoke them. Don&#8217;t exasperate your children or they&#8217;ll lose heart. Do &#8230; <a title=\"Fathers and Children\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/2009\/fathers-and-children\/\" aria-label=\"More on Fathers and Children\">Read more<\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[389,12],"tags":[404,547],"class_list":["post-1608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-children","category-lessons-for-living","tag-family","tag-parenting"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prJUJ-pW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1608\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}