Photo Credit: Creative Commons – Jigisha
Here’s a great guest post from a blogging buddy of mine Jared Latigo.
Jared is a writer, speaker and passion guy. His vision in life is to have more people love their work than ones that hate it.
Be sure to check out his blog at JaredLatigo.com or follow him on Twitter @JaredLatigo. Here’s his post:
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I’m on a mission in this life to figure out exactly where I “fit.”
Maybe you are too? Good. We’ll get along just fine then.
But often I get caught up thinking where I fit with my career or in with friends and forget that I need to focus more on where I fit with my family.
May we explore a bit?
This matters because it shows us what our culture thinks of father figures and where they fit in society. It shows and teaches our families things that aren’t necessarily true.
The father fits at the head of the home and along with that comes mutual respect and trust from the top down.
Fathers On Television
I have to admit that I don’t watch much TV. In my past I did, but it’s just not something we make much time for around our house.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t take notice when it’s on everywhere I go. Friends and family, restaurants, car washes and you name it, there’s probably a TV to be found.
And I don’t have a problem with it except for the way it portrays fathers in almost every single show. Think of many of the popular ones such as The Simpsons (and other cartoon ones), King of Queens, Two and A Half Men…and the list goes on.
They all portray the father as dumb, disconnected from the family and a neutral influence at best.
But this isn’t the way it should be.
“Men” In Music
If you think TV is bad, try listening to the way some “men” portray what a real man should be like.
There’s songs out there that would make me embarrassed to listen to them on my own time, let alone allow my family children to hear them.
They glorify things that are downright immoral and wrong even by most of the world’s standards. Honestly, I don’t listen to them myself, not anymore anyway. There was a time when it seemed really cool though.
But now, as a father, it’s anything but that. And that’s not the way it should be either.
Now, About That Towel
Mainstream media makes it clear where they think fathers fit in their families. But there is a better place for us. There is a place at the head of the household that yearns for the father to take over and fulfill his purpose.
The one takeaway that we all need to put into action is this.
The father is a servant. We are to serve our families to the point of no return.
But that’s far easier said than done. I fail at this all the time and often joke with my wife about “Where’s the towel for my arm?”
But I love it. And I wouldn’t give it up for anything. Sacrificial love is where the real man stands. It’s where the real man, the real father, fits in perfectly. And the family will follow his example.
A friend once told me something that stuck with me. He’s a wise man who’s been through a lot and yet he stands firm in his beliefs. So I will leave you with this to ponder on and hopefully put into action.
“There are many things a mother can provide for her children. There are many things she can do that the father simply cannot. But the one thing the father can provide, without question, is character.” – Jim Cloud
Question: Did you have a positive father figure in your life and what was the impact of that relationship?
