Father's Training

I guess y’all know what a whiteboard is, right? Well in case you don’t, in my opinion, it’s the worst invention of modern technology that replaced the chalkboard. The color pens used to write with have felt tips that wear out quickly, that is if the ink doesn’t dry up or run out first. The boards are difficult to keep clean and it only takes one person to clean it with the wrong material to ruin the whole board. Whiteboards are expensive and because of my upbringing I find it very hard to just toss one out replacing it with a new one. Well, I found a product called chalkboard paint. The whiteboards at work are all becoming reborn as chalkboards for a matter of pennies. For me, chalk is still king in the classroom, and chalk comes in just as many colors as those pens do.
While painting one of the boards I got to thinking about all the things my father has witnessed coming down the pipe during his lifetime and then an email received the other day reminded me of all the things that have come along in my own lifetime. If you were born just after WWII, television was brand new, most people had not yet seen one or knew it existed and penicillin was being introduced to the public. You were born before polio shots, frozen foods, Xerox, contact lenses, Frisbees or the “pill”. There were no credit cards, laser beams or ball-point pens. Man had not yet invented pantyhose, air conditioners, dishwashers or clothes dryers. Clothes were hung out to dry in the fresh air and man had not yet walked on the moon. When I first heard of fast-food I thought it was what people ate during Lent. It was a time before FM radio, tape decks, CD’s, electric typewriters, yogurt or guys wearing earrings. Pizza Hut, McDonald’s and instant coffee were unheard of. If you saw anything with “Made In Japan” on it, it was total junk. You could buy a brand new Chevy coupe for $600 and fill it with gas for 11 cents a gallon. For a nickel you could mail 1 letter and 2 postcards. In my growing up days we mowed “grass” and drank “coke”. “Pot” was something mother cooked in and “rock music” was a grandmother’s lullaby. “Aids” were workers in the Principal’s office, “chip” meant a piece of wood, “hardware” was found in the hardware store and “software” wasn’t even a word. I’m not yet 60 years-old and wonder just how much more I’ll need to survive in this world until I’m my father’s age of 90.
[Ephesians 6: 4] “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” (NIV) The King James says, “...provoke not your children to wrath”, and the Living Bible says, “Don’t keep on scolding and nagging your children, making them angry and resentful.” I think all fathers look back and wish they had done a better job raising their children. Yes, we need to see they are clothed, fed properly, protected and educated. But, too often we introduce them to the world and force them to conform to our will of conduct in the world. Sometimes the “exasperation of our children” doesn’t show up as “anger and resentment” until they have to deal with the world on their own. That’s why God says a father’s job is to bring up his children in the “training and instruction of the Lord”, so they will treat the world as they would have the world treat them. Sound familiar? I’m know that while my children are facing the challenges of the world on their own they will be comforted knowing that God is there with them. I may not have gotten it all right, but they are spiritually alive in God’s love.