Originally posted Wednesday, July 29, 2009
My mother died when I
was six years old. I don’t remember much about her in a physical sense, I
remember she was pretty and she always smelled good. The way she made me feel
is what I remember most strongly about my mother, I remember the warmth and
love she exuded were almost palpable things, always compelling me to seek
her side of my parent’s bed in the mornings so it would be the first thing I
experienced everyday.
My father I had until I
was twelve. I was very close to my dad, he had his failings like we all do, but
he was what a father ought to be. He was filled with love for my older sister,
and me. He was certainly the person I most wanted to hang around with when I
was a boy. A boy could not have had a better fellow for bolstering the old self
esteem than my dad, he would always brag in front of his friends and say things
like; “Look at my son, he’s got arms like truck tires. But when he laid down
the law...
My father was one of the
most intimidating people who ever lived, he had piercing deep set eyes which
seemed to glow with a red hot severity whenever he was upset or intensely
serious about an issue. He wasn’t physically imposing, he wasn’t a large man,
but he had a native potency that just seemed to give one pause in his presence.
I saw men twice his size deferring to him and it always seemed they did so
naturally.
It takes my older sister
to tell some of the best stories about his effect on her dates. Even the most
arrogant of her suitors withered under his gaze, enduring his scrutiny for what
must have felt like an eternity before being granted permission to date my
sister. On occasion, he would even arrange to be cleaning his M1 carbine when
meeting a potential beau for the first time. I have a 30-06 in reserve for the
same employment.
My dad didn’t have to
repeat himself, when he told me to do something I did it. This was learned
behavior, as I had suffered the consequences of having to be reminded to do
something, the lesson learned in the seat of my pants stuck. But, being a
boy, a boy with BB guns, a Ruttman mini bike, a love for explosives and an
imagination fueled by comic books and a few too many trips to literary places
like Barsoom and Pelucidar, I had quite a few lessons never repeated
after the rod of correction.
Eventually you begin to
count the cost, should I do this thing which may be fun while it lasts and
suffer the inevitable wrath I’m sure to face, or should I seek more paternally
approved diversions? If you are wise you opt for the latter. It is at this point
your relationship with your dad begins to change, or at least it should.
Just about a year or so
before my father's death, he stopped spanking me.
I wish I could say he
stopped because I had ceased all the activities I had an affinity for
warranting a heaping serving of “hot cakes”, I hadn’t. He told me I was old
enough to know right from wrong, at this point, I began to obey my father
not out of fear of the corporeal ramifications of my actions, (which I had
begun to understand took an emotional toll on him to have to mete out) but out
of the love he showed me every time he forgave me. You begin to recognize you both feel better when he is bragging on you and proud of you, than when he
is punishing you.
I dialog with agnostics
and atheists fairly often on a variety of subjects. When the opportunity to
discuss morality arises with them I am fascinated by a recurring theme I
have heard from more than one non-believer. The idea Biblical morality is
predicated on the fear of displeasing the God of the Holy Bible, rather than
what they believe to be the (self evident) natural desire to do good or to
treat others well because it is what is best for society in a purely
naturalistic sense.
It is true the
Bible states without equivocation:
“The fear of the Lord is the
beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Proverbs 1:7
I agree with this
statement, we should fear the Lord in my opinion. It goes on to say in verse 8
and 9:
“My son, hear the instruction of thy
father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about
thy neck.”
Fear of the Lord is the
beginning, not the end, the beginning of knowledge. This is why God structured
the family the way He did, it is a type of the relationship we should seek to
have with Him. A child should fear his father in the beginning, it is the fear
of a good father in early life that forms the foundation for and is integral to
learning the behavior that will stand the individual in good stead throughout
life and is the plumb line proving an orderly society.
As you study the Bible
you get to know the God of the Bible, He should be feared, but just like a
healthy relationship with your father changes throughout life as you mature
from one of fear to deep admiration, appreciation and love, so too does the
portrait of the Biblical Father. We find Him making a provision through His Son
to reconcile even the vilest of us to Him.
We see over and over
again throughout scripture His deep desire to have and maintain a close and
meaningful relationship with all of us. He promises when we accept His Son
and His sacrifice, no matter how much we screw up, He will call us
righteous. This is not a license to do wrong, but a promise not to reject His
children, because He knows we can never measure up to His standards.
So, yes, after reading
the Holy Bible in it’s totality and fully apprehending His teachings, I would have
to say the God of the Holy Bible is wiser than me. His rules are better and far
more complete than anything man left to his own devices has managed to come up
with.
There is a plague of
boys in this nation that grew up, or is growing up without the fear of a father
because the father was not, or is not there to instill it.
Far more tragically
those fathers are not there to lead their families to the heavenly Father who
writes His laws on the hearts of believers. Subsequently we have prisons filled
to the bursting with children who are following their (self evident) natural
desires.
It is not a mistake we find
in the media the father is so often portrayed as a buffoon or a brute, and
liberalism and secularism does so much to downplay the importance of fatherhood
in modern society.
Whether it be through
the grim promotion of abortion on demand, absolving men from familial responsibility by
removing the child from the world all together, the advocacy of gay marriage
and blurring the rolls of men and women, or the creation of the welfare state
making it unprofitable to have a father in the home, they are all eating away
at the moral foundation undergirding America and they serve formidably as
surrogate attacks against God himself!
So I ask my agnostic and
atheistic friends this question: As we banish the Biblical, fearful God, our heavenly
Father, more and more from the public square by removing the Ten Commandments
from municipal buildings, or banning prayer in schools... As we edge ever closer
to a secular America and the protean largesse of men, are we better off?
Digital Publius
