“Fathers do not provoke your children to anger but raise them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4)
Good parenting doesn’t always come from the mothers. Fathers play an important role in their children’s lives. Meet my neighbor, Oliver Smith, a retired engineer from Boeing Aircraft, and his two beautiful daughters, Lindsay, the humble one, and Alanah, the feisty one. After a divorce from his wife, usually the mother takes the kids, but in this relationship, the kids chose to stay with Daddy, so Oliver took on the responsibility of raising his daughters by himself. And he did. He made sure the two of them had food to eat and a roof over their heads. He put both through college, which both graduated and received their master’s degree. Was it easy raising two girls? No! They’ve had the neighbors complain to Oliver many times for their late night after parties. They’re mature now and have gotten better.
Oliver raised his girls to be respectful and caring and that they are, whenever you meet them. I guess it was bound to happen being he’s a country man from Mississippi. Those old Southern style ways and upbringing poured out into his girls. Oliver has a big heart and he’s always lending a helping hand. My husband took a liking to him as a big brother, and I did too. And on days when we’d have our “Love thy Neighbor” day in our backyard, he’d always say, “Tanya, bless the food.” Nobody touched the food unless it was blessed. And to all the single men salivating at the mouth over Oliver’s lovely daughters, don’t blow up my email trying to get a date with them. I’ll pray for the Lord to bless you with a wife just as I’m praying for the Lord to bless them with strong, faithful husbands.
Meet my nephew Shanun, the father of 5 boys. Biologically, he is the father of four boys, Jameel, Jace, Jackson and Jonah, but if you ask him how many kids he has, he will straight up tell you, five! And dare you oppose it. That’s because he adopted in his heart his first baby’s mother, first born child, Kalon, took care of him and raised him as his own. It takes a lot of courage to find a man that will do that for a young lady and her fatherless child. In a world where many stepchildren are castaways, they often develop mental issues, low self-esteem and can even become suicidal because they long for a sense of belonging. In my community, where it is predominantly black, our children face this type of trauma of not being accepted by fathers who are not in their biological habitat.
Let’s encourage our fathers and stepfathers who are brave enough to step up to the plate and care for the neglected or those that simply don’t have a father’s figure to look up to.
