Of course, considering my advanced age, my own father has been gone from this earth many years. But I can tell you what a good father is because I had one of the very best. So listen to me, as a son and a father in his own right, while I muse on what good fathers are made of.
Good fathers are not born that way; they are made – by trial and error, by perseverance, by the best of intentions and by the grace of God.
The title of itself grants no special significance to the indifferent father who looks on it as a right to mistreat his brood – often brutalizing their mother. Not so with a good father: he realizes he has a tremendous responsibility to discharge. He must be a God figure to his children who are too young to have a concept of a God who is over all creation. Good ol' Dad is their God, and that is as it should be. He shows them early in life what that authority figure is like. Of course He won't be perfect in the role, but he should give it his best.
A father is the head of the family. Note that he is NOT the "boss." Do we who know God look on Him as a "boss," or as the great and powerful yet loving Person He really is? Similarly, a father should be an authority figure who exhibits the love and gentleness and kindness that entitle him to his children's love as well as their respect and obedience.
A father works together with the mother to create a home that embodies warmth and safety, a home to which the children are eager to return after they have been away for a while. He should be a source of comfort to his children, perhaps not in the same classic sense as the mother, but in a protective "nothing-can-hurt-me" and "my-Dad-could-fight-a-tiger-if-he-was-chasing-me" way. Mothers can't fight tigers; they can only soothe the wounds inflicted by the tiger and wipe away the tears of pain and fright from scared little eyes.
But we have to be realistic. When all is said and done, a real-life father may not fill the requirements for the post perfectly. He is human and he will stumble here and there despite battling his human frailties. At times he will feel like kicking himself for not being the kind of Dad he wants to be. But that's just the point: his heart is into the task and he can't fail with such an attitude. If he is giving it his all, he is a hero to his children and in the sight of God – and he will do quite well until the perfect Dad comes along.
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