Father's/Dad's, Who are they?

Which one of these pictures make you smile?  
Which one brings a tear to your eye?  
Which one even makes you utter a silent question, "Man, I wish my dad had done that?", or "Man, my dad was just that, I love him for helping me feel like I was the most important kid in the world!"  
Which one makes you break out in a good laugh?  Of course that would be the last one.  What was he so happy about?  Just happy to be a kid, free to be himself, jumping with joy!  

What emotions are the two boys feeling at this moment?  
What questions are going through their minds?  
Why does the dad look like he is disapproving of something his son has done?

When it comes to thinking about our relationship to our Father/Dad it often makes us get down and take a closer look at who he was/is.  
When he enters your thoughts do the memories (present or past) make you smile or do they bring an ache to your heart?  Thinking of him may even bring no feelings much at all, what do you do with that?  


For those of us who feel that ache in our heart regarding the subject of our Father/Dad it may make us cry out at times -

It may bring up emotions of anger in the form of questions such as: 
Why couldn't he have just played catch with me once, I asked him but he was too busy?
Why was he afraid to show any affection to me, didn't he love me?
Why wasn't he proud of me, I needed to hear that so bad?
Why did he die when I was so young, I needed him?
Why did he drink so much and make us feel like we didn't matter?
Why did he abandon me, I never even got to see his face?

What do we do with the issues in our very souls concerning our Father/Dad?  

I am one of the ones who doesn't feel much when I think of my Father/Dad.  My biological father I never got to meet because he never knew he had another son, me.  He is just a man in a picture I received once that indicated what he looked like.  I never got to see his face.  My dad was the man who adopted me when I was almost a year old. He was there but (as I look back with a different perspective now that I am older) he just didn't know how to be a father.  He died when I was a teenager and at his funeral I felt nothing.  I felt nothing back there and I still don't concerning him.  


I do feel that incredible loss of a Father/Dad, though, and it does bring sadness, anguish, tears, anger (directed more at myself), questions, what ifs, and many other emotional responses.  I feel that a Father figure is so crucial in our lives, without him there is an ache in our heart for someone to "make the world's problems go away;" to show us how to be a man, how to face problems, how to catch a ball, how to treat a woman, and the list could go on.  What about the blessing of a Father?!  We need someone to bless us.  I believe that is what God wants a Father to do, bless us, if we miss that our journey is much more difficult and answers harder to find.  A blessing would give us confidence to live as healthy guys in this often disturbing world where right and wrong are getting so blurred.  We need our Father/Dad!

What do we do with this ache in our heart?  
Each time I see a father and his son walking down the sidewalk together having a conversation I get that ache in my heart.  Each time I see a dad standing with his arm around his son or the son has his arm on his dad's shoulder I get that ache in my heart.  Each time!  There is that ache, I can't push it down inside, I can't try to drown it by some dulling escapade, I can't look to someone else to take it away, I can only give it to the One who "is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit."  There will always be a hole in my heart where my earthly father/dad should have been.  On the other hand, that same hole can be filled by my Father God. He loves me, He has seen every one of my tears, He knows the ache in my heart, He has seen the things I have done to try and fill that hole with sinful things, He forgives me, He knows what I need and I can trust Him with every detail of my life.  It has not been an easy road because I have often drifted back to letting that 'ache' drag me down but the Lord God has always been there to love me back to right living.  He is the One I depend on, He knows me best, I run to Him because He is my Father God.


"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear; though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, thought its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging."  Psalm 46:1-3


Prayer:
"God, our Father, bless each man who reads this prayer.  Give him the strength to live each day.  Give him wisdom in every decision he finds he needs to make.  Give him joy in his heart knowing he is loved, that he is worth knowing, that he a valuable vital human being, that he is complete as a man and that he can be proud of himself.  Help him to walk with his head held high, without fear or dread, confident that You will lead him each step of the way.  Heal any ache in his heart that has held him back from the best that he can have in his life.  Help him to rise above any weakness that keeps plaguing his walk to freedom as a man.  In Your name, Lord Jesus Christ, put a hedge about him where the evil one cannot touch him, cover him with your blood, free him to be the best man he can be.  Bless him from this moment on.  In Your Holy Name, we ask.  Amen"