The value of the father as a spiritual guide. (Part III. Love)
Author
Faustino de JesĂşs Zamora Vargas
Summary: Parents need to demonstrate love to their children in order for them to heed discipline and instruction. The use of power without love corrupts authority and undermines the biblical concept of subjugation. Christian parents need to understand that they are born anew in Christ and should model their love on God's love. Children need to be loved, accepted, consoled, encouraged, and admonished based on unconditional love. Lack of love is the primary cause of children's anger and exasperation. The revival of love must begin at home, and parents should hug their children to make them feel loved, accepted, and forgiven. The Christian home filled with love makes children feel safe, happy, and privileged. Prodigal children in the home need love, acceptance, and forgiveness. By cultivating love in their children, parents can effectively discipline and instruct them, and their children will praise God.
A son will not heed the discipline and instruction of the father if he is not persuaded of his love. We are specialists in demonstrating the supremacy of the father at the family level, hegemony and dominance in the hierarchy of the home. We are parents, usually the strongest, and sometimes we look the weakest. But power is not the same as authority. Power tends to be a capricious and inordinate use of authority when exercised without love. Power is corrupt - even in the home - when it rules out of concepts of false manhood over those loved ones whom we are obliged to serve first and then lead.
God has not endowed us with such power to rule children, but with authority in Christ. An authority clothed in love. Without love there is no government that prevails, no son and wife that allow themselves to be led or subjugated biblically. The home continues to be the best ground for the exercise of parental authority in God's way. As Christian parents - I am the first - we still have a lot to learn. We must leave behind the past, the memories of our own parents who raised us in a hurry, without love perhaps, without giving us the attention we deserved and the encouragement that we will one day need. We cannot continue to hide behind their mistakes to justify ours.
Children need parents who fully understand that they were born again when they received Christ, that old things have passed away, and that Christ makes everything new, including parenthood. God's love is the only model of parental love that we can trust. Jeremiah left us this message: A long time ago the Lord appeared to me and said: “With an everlasting love I have loved you; That is why I follow you faithfully ”(Jer 31.3).
Children need to be loved and accepted, that we recognize their values, that we console and encourage them, that we admonish them on the basis of the love that we have inherited from our heavenly Father. It is sad to grow up without the memory of a hug from your father at a time when you needed it; Reason enough for you not to stop hugging your children whenever you get a chance, no matter their age. Children, whatever their condition, long for the embrace of a father. Paul told the Thessalonians: “You also know that we have treated each one of you as a father treats his own children. We have encouraged, consoled and exhorted them to lead a life worthy of God, who calls them to his kingdom and to his glory ”. (1 Ts 2.10-12).
Encourage, comfort, and exhort them to lead a life worthy of before God, a life that is worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but on the basis of unconditional love. The greatest cause of children's exasperation and anger is due to our lack of love. Meditate a bit about it and you will see that this is so. We are so immersed in our own world - still serving God - that we don't notice enough that our children desperately demand and need parental love. The revival of love must begin at home. Today can be a great day for your child. Come closer and hug him and you yourself will also feel the embrace of God.
The Christian home where the embrace reigns is impregnated with love and the children will appreciate it, they will feel safe, happy and privileged. The prodigal son of the Bible may not have imagined the loving welcome that flowed from his father's heart when he saw him return from afar: “So he set out on the journey and went to his father. He was still far away when his father saw him and took pity on him; He ran out to meet him, hugged him and kissed him ”. (Lk 15.20 NIV). That hug changed everything. Attention! There are also prodigal children in our own homes who need a simple hug and a heartfelt kiss to feel loved, accepted, and forgiven. Does God see us differently than we see our children? Sometimes parents become prodigal children and we need the renewing embrace of our heavenly Father.
Let us cultivate love in our children and so they will abide by discipline and joyfully allow our instruction as Christian parents. May they one day say: "My strength and my song is the Lord ... this is my God, ... the God of my father, and I will praise him." (Ex 15.2).
God bless you!