The Martyr Father

Something I am only now beginning to learn in life is the over-all attitude I am to carry as a Husband/Father in the Orthodox Christian home. God Himself gives us the key to show us how to live in each facet of our lives, appropriately a Father notwithstanding. God condescends as the Son in Jesus Christ to all humanity, taking on our flesh, suffering through life, being a light unto the World and then the Passion and Ressurrection. During all of this, He simultaneously is taking care of His children and yet living on our level. But why did He do it this way?

People that are good with children will understand when I say that the way to teach children and get to a closer relationship with them is by coming down to their level. We can not speak as adults and expect little "Timmy" to understand. To influence a child, one must have a balance to allow the child to come to their own conclusions while gently coercing them in the right direction. We influence them best by relating things they already know about (through example or some other means) and branching that concept into the subject we are speaking about.

I've heard (from soemone who was in childhood development classes) it said that a child's whole personality is developed at a fundamental level by the age of five. Also I have heard that children can not tell the sexes apart until around three. Costumes, uniforms, style of dress of any kind can confuse or help to associate a child's perception of Male and Female form. All that being said it is interesting to me that God took the flesh of man to reach man on his own terms, while humanity was still young in the world, ripe for a dramatic change in perception to how he related to the Godhead Trinity. What does this say about Humanity as a whole over the course of history? Can we then look at Humanity as one organism which has a longer lifespan as a race? Something to ponder especially considering the way mystical Eastern religions tend to think of mankind as having a sort of mass-consciousness or global-mind. But I digressed!

The point to all this is that our benevolent and merciful God did something very important, He provided for us the example of parenthood in His martyrdom. Though He is the Creator of the Universe, He condescended to our level and allowed Himself to be put last, treated worst of all while He thought of nothing except for the care of His children. As a parent I can attest that my first lesson in this was rocking my first-born in a rocking chair for hours, though I had just gotten home from a 10 hour day at work in a hot kitchen, was hungry and needed to use the restroom very badly. I put all that on hold to allow my daughter and wife to get some much-needed rest. Although this was not much of an act of selflessness, for me it was my first dose of things to come.

Dying to the self, our own desires and wants (eventually even some needs) is the life of a Christian. God asks of nothing less than this when He says that we must take up our cross and follow Him. How manly! How Fatherly! May the Lord grant me and all fathers of the world the ability to see this through, finding that the path of Life in Christ is through death of the self.

I hope everyone had a Happy Father's Day!

Another blogger who's works I am now getting familiar with is over at Nonna's Neuropoetry!Please support her! Something Nonna said in one of her posts was the inspiration for this post today!