Day 4: Happy Father’s Day!

¹ Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ² “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), ³“that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” ⁴ Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
- Ephesians 6: 1-4

Not all fathers are perfect, to some their father is their hero, motivation, and source of dreams, however, to some their father is their oppressor, frustration, and source of regrets. Like it or not - he is the one that brought you out here with the help of your mother of course. Easy for me to say I guess and I may not have the position to say it.

When you learn of the ways my late father used to deal with us, some of you might not consider him as an ideal father. Nonetheless, he, of his own knowledge and conviction brought us up. Some of my siblings reacted to such methods positively although some negatively. But for me, despite of his shortcomings, he is the greatest father I had and I am proud of him. Yes, like some unfortunate sons out there I hated him at one point but hating him doesn’t make things right. When I think of the past, I sometimes came to see that he did his best and did not ran away from his responsibilty, he could have neglected us from the beginning but he didn’t.

I can’t blame those who hated their fathers to their grave since I never knew their story. But we must not let their few or more mistakes cloud our perceptions regarding them since at some point they might have done a good thing and it’s just that they might have not the courage to do things right or might have concealed such cowardice by doing such despicable things.

I don’t encourage the idea that no matter how detestable the actions of some fathers to their sons and daugthers, we’ll just ignore them because they are our fathers but don’t correct a mistake by committing another mistake. God knows every wrong doing and it doesn’t go unpunished. I bear witness to that. I am writing these thoughts not just to honor the fathers but to remind them of their responsibilities as well.

⁴ Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. - Ephesians 6: 4

One day, some of us might become fathers as well. Let us learn from the mistakes our fathers did and try not to do them to our future sons and daughters.