Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

• Ephesians 6:4

The Boilerplate

My wife started to write her thoughts down at one point in her life.  Some hints point to 2018 and 2019, after she had her open-heart surgery.  In spite of her trials and the atrial fibrillation (A-Fib) that required her to take blood thinners, this was before her major health decline.

Sometimes, she wrote a thought.  Other times, she wrote a Bible verse, and maybe her idea on that day.  Other times, it is a prayer, but I am going to take one entry at a time and try to write about it

Her comment

“Fathers, do not exasperate your children by coming down hard on them.”

• My wife’s next comment in this notebook

The Discussion

In the notebook, she wrote that comment and left the rest of the page blank.  Was she thinking of writing more and then never did?  On the next page and a half, she continued, but why did she leave the rest of that page open for further discussion?

I think she thought I came down too hard on the children, and that is why one strayed.  She was trying to make it my fault instead of our son’s fault.  Yes, I was tough on the boys, but my younger son is equally tough on his.  He accepted Jesus as his Savior.  He may not have liked my approach, but he follows it.  And like my wife who hated to be the disciplinarian, my daughter-in-law has the same problem.  This creates friction within the family.  The father becomes the big bad guy, although the mother must explain to the father what the children did in the father’s absence.  It is always, the father that decides the punishment and administers it.  And my son speaks of how the children will do chores when he asks because he helps them, rather than they being told to do it alone.

Yet, each person is responsible for their decision in life, to accept Jesus or reject Him.  No one goes to Hell except on their own two feet. No matter what happens and who did it along the way.

And when someone tells you that they will never ever forgive any slight from any person and they will never accept forgiveness from anyone, that has nothing to do with how the person was raised, but what is in that person’s heart.

And especially when they cut off communication to punish you, all you can do is pray for them.  And regardless of what they may want, they can never stop those prayers.

This was a hard post to write, and I think that in writing it, I know why my wife left the rest of that page blank, skipping to the next page to continue her notes.  It was hard for her to examine what the mother might have done regarding exasperating the child.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory