Have you ever gone to bed and left the doors to your home unlocked? Better yet, have you ever just left the doors wide open while everyone was sleeping? Most of us would say with confusion and pride ‘of course not, how ridiculous What kind of father leaves their home unprotected like that?’
As men, we are protectors by nature. When danger approaches, our fight or flight instinct kicks in, especially when it comes to our family. When we feel trouble lurking around our homes we become the protective warriors we were created to be. We have been entrusted to the task of protector, provider and the covering over our homes.
But have you ever considered that you may still be leaving doors wide open in your home?
Let’s consider this scenario.
Jim was a hard working father and prided himself on being a provider for his family. He loved his family very much as they were the driving force for his long 8-10 hour work days. Every night Jim would walk through the house and make sure all the doors were locked, windows latched and the alarm was set. He was confident that his home was protected!
When Jim would return home from work, he’d sit and spend time with his wife and two children. Afterwards, his son would go watch television and his daughter would go play with her dolls.
One day Jim’s wife, Jessica, noticed that the show their son was watching had a few inappropriate words and a lot of fighting. She particularly didn’t like the scene where one of the characters played a disrespectful prank on the teacher to impress his new friends. Jessica mentioned to Jim her concern about their son watching the show but Jim felt it wasn’t that big of a deal. Yet to put her at ease he had a talk with their son about the scene and that he shouldn’t repeat the behavior that was displayed. His son agreed and they went on their way.
A few weeks later Jessica received a call from their son’s principal stating that their son was sitting in his office due to a prank he and his friends had played on their teacher. Jessica was very upset and called Jim immediately. They both left work and when they arrived at the school they spoke with the principle only to find out that prior to this incident their son had receiving verbal warnings frequently from this same teacher due to horse playing and disrespect. Both Jim and Jessica were shocked. Where had this behavior come from?
Many times when it is implied that television, music and video games have negative impacts on our children, it is brushed off as being over reactive. We can quickly become defensive or passive just as Jim was. Yet as fathers we are the protectors of the doors in our children’s lives. It is our job to lock out the negative influences and give access to the positive ones. Why? Because as children, they aren’t able to discern the difference yet. Sometimes blocking these things out may mean removing televisions, blocking cellphones and limiting internet access. Yet, if we are proactive in being protective we can guard them from things that desire to infiltrate their future success.
