The invisible father

Think a minute…A 58-year-old man was sharing his memories of his father.

He said his father had been a workaholic who was always busy with work and his own personal interests.

He never came to his son’s sports games or activities.

In fact, the son said his dad almost never spoke to him.

By the time the son was 18 years old, in his last year of school, he’d become a very good football player. When his team qualified for the championship, he begged his father to finally come see him play this one time; so his dad promised he’d be there.

On the day of the championship, the son was on the field warming up just before the game when he saw his dad come into the stadium with two other men. Then, just before the game started, his dad left with his friends and never returned.

It’s now been 40 years since that day, yet this 58-year-old son says the painful rejection and disappointment he felt as a teenager is still very real.

When his father recently died at age 83, he stood alone next to his dad’s coffin at the funeral home and said: “Dad, we could have shared so much love and good times together, but I never knew you.”

Thinking back on this man’s childhood, and especially that day of the football game, I wonder what that father thought was more important than being there for his son.

Was his time with business associates more important than caring and being interested in the success of his own son? That father let the years go by without doing his job at home. He failed in his most important responsibility as a father.

A father has tremendous power and influence in the lives of his children. Studies have shown that the number one cause of troubled boys and young men is that they had fathers who didn’t really care. They didn’t spend time with their sons so they weren’t close to them.

There are millions of invisible fathers like this.

But “No man stands as tall, as when he stoops down to help his son.” How about you? Do you need to give more time and attention to your children? It’s never too late to change. Why not ask Jesus Christ to forgive you for your failures as a father? Then ask Him to help change you so you can become the caring, loving father your children need.

Just Think a Minute…

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