A little girl was showing he playmate her new home. "This is daddy's den," she explained as they entered one room. "Does your daddy have a den?"
"No," was the answer, "my pop just growls all over the house."
It is said of Boswell, the famous biographer of Samuel Johnson, that he often referred to a special day in his childhood when his father took him fishing. The day was fixed in his adult mind, and he often reflected upon many of the things his father had taught him in the course of their fishing experience together. After having heard of that particular excursion so often, it occurred to someone much later to check the journal that Boswell's father kept and determine what had been said about the fishing trip from the parental perspective. Turning to that date, the reader found only one sentence entered: "Gone fishing today with my son; day wasted."
Someone has said "Many a son has lost his way among strangers because his father was too busy to get acquainted with him."
A man and his young son were climbing a mountain. They came to a place where the climbing was difficult and even dangerous. The father stopped to consider which way he should go. He heard the boy behind him say, "Choose the good path, Dad; I'm coming right behind you!"
The Bible gives several instructions as to our parental roles. Here is one challenge taken from the New Living Translation. "And now a word to you fathers: "Don't make your children angry by the way you treat them. Rather bring them up with the discipline and instruction approved by the Lord." That child or grandchild is very blessed.
Pastor John Giesbrecht
