Exasperate

Exasperate

 Now there's a word I hardly ever hear used in common discourse. It means to excite to anger or rage. While thinking about a blog for Father’s Day, exasperate came to mind. Funny how the mind works. This is not a word you will find on a Father’s Day Hallmark card. Unfortunately, the greeting card companies as well as the rest of our culture has demeaned fatherhood to the level of a bumbling male who brings home the bread.

I was blessed to grow up with a dad. He was a good provider but often absent from our home because he was a doctor. In later years, we became good friends and I learned much from his wisdom. Growing up in a family of eight siblings, I experienced the importance of a father in the home.

Having been a father myself for almost forty-three years, I have learned some of the difficult skills necessary to raising children. I also learned a few pieces of wisdom along the way: 1) my kids were instrumental in helping me grow up; 2) there is no such thing as perfect kids; 3) my kids are schizophrenic – half me and half Judy; 4) kids remember very little of my parenting errors.

Interesting enough the Bible has a lot to say about being a father. There are ample examples of good and bad dads as well as sage advice about parenting. I end this blog with a quote from the New Testament book of Ephesians: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, do not exasperate them to the point of resentment with demands that are trivial or unreasonable or humiliating or abusive; nor by showing favoritism or indifference to any of them, but bring them up tenderly with loving kindness in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Amen!