“Fathers, do not exasperate your children. Instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” Ephesians 6:4
The young boy was warming up for the middle school boys basketball game practicing foul shots, layups and shooting from around the top of the key. From the stands you could hear the boy’s father every time he would miss a shot, “you can’t hit a bull in the butt with a shovel!”, “I bet you can’t make the next one either!”. If the kid made the shot, the father would yell, “what a lucky shot! Bet you can’t do it again!” And on and on it would go. Every miss was expected and every made shot was luck.
That father either did not know about Ephesians 6:4 or chose to ignore it. It was clear that the young boy, probably about 11 or 12 years old, was totally exasperated. So what, you may say, life can be exasperating, he may as well learn it early. The problem is that while life may be exasperating, God says that parents, and especially fathers, should not. Their job is to build up, train and encourage their children. There are enough other people to exasperate them. You see, fathers here on earth stand in for God. In other words, children usually see God the same way they view their earthly fathers. If their earthly father is harsh, discouraging and exasperating, then children will assume that God is the same way. This makes it much more difficult for that child to believe God is loving, kind and approachable.
Do you see yourself in the “basketball Dad” I mentioned earlier? Does your son or daughter get frustrated at your “teasing” or harsh comments? Do you see hurt, anger or exasperation in your children’s eyes? Maybe it’s a good time to take a long, hard look at the way you treat your son or daughter. Maybe it’s a good time to take a hard look at yourself and examine the reasons you treat them the way you do. We’ll take a deeper look at this idea of “exasperating our children” next time.
There is hope! The first step is recognizing the problem.