Who Wants Perfect Fathers?

I have a perfect Heavenly Father, yet I am so twisted in my fallen nature that, too often, I fail to respond to his love and grace. I respond better to adversity.

Here is an example. All through junior high and through my freshman and sophomore years in High School, I was basically groomed to be the starting quarterback of the Winnsboro Red Raiders. The year the coaches planned on my starting was to be my junior season. Unfortunately, I played poorly in our pre-season practices and scrimmages. So much so, I was benched in favor of another quarterback.

Guess what that benching did? It woke me up. I became determined that if I ever received another chance to play, I would play well. Instead of making me tense, my benching actually loosened me up.

We lost the first two games of the season. The third game, I received another chance and started. I never relinquished the starting role again.

I have been turning over in my mind, the past few weeks, some concepts difficult to express in words. Let me make another pass at it, and if I fail, you can email me and tell me what you are hearing.

We get so hung up on how others are treating us, or how others treated us. Typically, we focus on the treatment we receive from parents, spouses, or bosses.

Often, people lament what they could have become were their parents better. In spite of their success, some grieve their raising because they feel their parents inflicted too much pain upon them. Careful, there are plenty of instances where a parent’s flaw actually makes a positive impact on a child.

When I was growing up, my daddy smoked. Most men of his generation did. Looking back, some of my childhood illnesses were probably due to his smoking. However, I have never had the desire to become a smoker. I owe this to having a father who was one.

Listen, there are times you fail to live, as you should, and this is with a Heavenly Father who is Perfect. What in the world makes you think you would have been better if your earthly father was?

Here is the catch. God, in his wisdom, trumps our sinful natures. He actually uses the flaws of others, be it a parent, a spouse, or a boss, to motivate us to respond in the way we should have from the beginning. Since we refuse to respond to his perfection, we respond to someone else’s IMperfection.

Next time someone is treating you wrong, think—they may be fallen and mean and need your tender loving care. Or, they may be unwittingly serving as God’s instrument to help you become what he designed you to be.

Five Things I Think I Think (with a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. Congratulations to Sandra Bullock for her Best Actress win at the Academy Awards. I enjoyed BLINDSIDE and am pleased, and a little surprised, Bullock snagged the Oscar. I was also taken aback when THE HURT LOCKER won for Best Picture, beating out AVATAR. However, I have seen neither.

2. I have seen THE SPY NEXT DOOR. Strangely enough, it was not nominated for BEST PICTURE. Judy and I saw this Jackie Chan vehicle Friday night. This is one of those movies they made for the entire family to see: no cuss words or crudity. The plot is paint-by-the-numbers, but that is okay. I am thankful Hollywood is making so many family-friendly movies that I don’t have time, or money, take my clan to see them all.

3. Remember when kids played peewee baseball during the summers? Now, even in Texas, the seven-year-olds have to shovel the snow and ice off the diamond to practice.

4. For the first time I can remember, I have no regular TV show or sport that I am following each week. Maturity, or old age?

5. Congratulations to Haleigh Edge and Jenny Munoz. Haleigh made second team on the TAPPS All-State Basketball Team. Jenny was honored with an Honorable Mention. Jenny is a sophomore and Haleigh is a junior. With the team they have coming back, wait until next year.


Have a great week!