Dads Initiate, Serve and Guard Love

My previous article was a reminder that God is the author of all life. ("Call no man Father" refers to the sole authorship of life that belongs to God the Father.) The Father initiates life, and man as father is to share in the initiation of life. We see that the guardianship of life begins before the new life. A father must guard the civilization of love from the harm from outside but also from himself. That means that a man must guard every woman from his own desires, which stem not from true sonship or fatherhood, but from self gratification.
Every woman is to be a subject of love and not an object of use. This begins when a man is young as he must learn to treat all human beings and all women with proper dignity and respect. He is to learn to value virginity as a gift of innocence that is to be guarded in every way both in himself and in others. As a boy grows into manhood the responsibility grows. He is to preserve himself and others for the gift of self. Even after marriage a man must guard his wife and children from his own frailty. This is why the Holy Father has reminded men not to lust after their wives for it makes them an object of use and abuses their true dignity. It is that dignity which was authored by God that he must serve. Contraception is not a service of the gift of self but rather a violation of the gift and serves only selfishness, fear and the lack of trust in Divine Providence.

Tom Hardy, Teen Daughters and Modesty

Are there any Dads out there who have had experience in the frustrating quest to give good criteria to their teenage daughters on the subject of style in choosing clothes? My answer to the problem has been to say the least, unorthodox. It requires a strong stomach, lots of patience and in some cases, some real cash. I'm talking about…… Shopping with Dad. Yikes!!

Father Knows Best

First let me suggest some notions that may seem controversial but I have found to be true.

Dads Communicate

When we think of communication we normally consider things such as talking, listening and understanding. However, we would like to draw a distinction between these and what constitutes "true" communication. Talking, listening and understanding are communication skills and are mostly taught within the daily activities of family life. True communication, is more than these skills. It is based upon those things that are mutually shared or loved by both parties. If both parties value baseball or education, then baseball or education becomes a matter of communication. If it is not mutually held, then it becomes a matter of information. Information is fine but it does not have the capacity to unite people.

Workaholism: It Can Even Happend to Nice Guys

Many fathers are consistently working far too many hours. We may work these hours because the office culture seems to require it. Or, our employer may actually demand that we spend an excessive number of hours on the job. For some of us, work may be an escape from the demands of family life. Regardless of the reasons we spend too much time on the job, it should be clear that excessive work is a disorder that can ruin one's marriage and family life.

Dads Give Good Example (Part 2)

Ward Cleaver or James Bond? (Part 2) If we return to the argument for eliminating the "Ward Cleavers" from family programming we have to ask ourselves, "were the values of those family stories unreal?" Can anyone say that the replacement, "Ted Bundy", is real?" I have heard the actors and directors of "Married, with Children" say how they believe they are expressing the life of the American family. Can any woman say that this is what they want their husband to be? Or that this is what they want the father of their children to be like? Or do they see Bundy's wife as the prototype they seek to emulate? Are these children the models we would like to see our own children molded into? For that matter, we must ask, "Who on television today is a "real father."

Dads Give Good Example (Part 1)

Ward Cleaver or James Bond?  Children are formed by the models that they see. The idea of a father was once expressed in the form of "Leave it to Beaver's" "Ward Cleaver" and other fathers in a number of evening shows such as "Father Knows Best," "Donna Reed Show" etc. Television producers removed these role models under the guise that they "were not real." A fellow recently made the claim that boys would look at their own dad and see that he was not Ward Cleaver

Modesty in Dress: Fighting the Good Fight

Any father with a daughter over the age of ten knows what a struggle it can be teaching them the importance of dressing modestly. It is difficult because of the incredible peer pressure they face to be "with it" and dress like all their friends. Indeed, many of the styles today are designed to be "sexy"--and these styles are available for girls much younger than we may like to think.