My Treasure

 

They’re growing way too fast, but such is life.

Daddy War-ring-against-the-bucks

In Annie’s life the sun does come out tomorrow when Daddy Warbucks uses his wealthy pull to bring her home to live in his mansioned-fatherhood. Who has not been inspired by this true American classic?

In today’s world the sun comes out when … or even if … Daddy’s check arrives. For many children of divorce that check is the only tangible evidence they have had at one time a father to even think about them … not to mention even visit them.

While this is sad in and of itself, the nasty thunderstorm clouds that hide the sun from coming out for us is our society’s pressured acceptance of relegating fathers to Ben Franklin, George Washington, and their ilk ($$$$$$) … while at the same time castrating fatherhood.

David Blankenhorn poignantly insists that the best answer for today’s rampant drugs, sex, and violence youth culture is fatherhood. He does not simply mean making deadbeat dads pay their child support. He is calling on our society to work towards reinvesting in a fully married, male fatherhood. The stock market of secular-progressive androgyny has long crashed, leaving American society in deep depression.

“For children, doing without a father’s money is the easy part. Money influences what you have and what you can do. Fathers shape who you are” (David Blankenhorn, Fatherless America: Confronting our Most Urgent Social Problem, p. 45).

Waving “Bye-Bye” to the Passing Cars

When my baby girl greets my wife and I in the mornings with a stark naked smiling body and poopy hands, any romantic notions of parenting are sufficiently flushed down the toilet. Yet, in reality my baby’s “little presents” wrapped in huggies are part and parcel of the larger gift she is from God to us. Right now, with every bottom and nose wiped, with every boo boo kissed, we are communicating to her our unconditional love.

How great a gift from God! It is through these experiences that we are transformed into His likeness, by developing unconditional love for truly helpless creatures. I believe it is the Eastern Orthodox who might call this participating in the divine nature.

In addition to this, if we can keep our attitudes towards her in line with our unconditional-love-actions, we will have earned a special place in her ears for our voices of guidance. About dusk my baby girl (22 months old) and I sat in our yard, watching the cars go by. She got the biggest thrill out of pointing and waving at the unaware passersby. I was aware, though. I was aware that simply being out there and enjoying that harmless moment with her was a building block of trust for us. It is my hope that with each push of the swing and each bye-bye wave to the passing cars, that I am bonding her to me. Despite whatever else I might could have been doing. My time was very well spent. I’d rather watch her wave bye-bye to unaware passersby now than flip me off bye-bye later as a teenager.