#father

I was eleven when my father left, so neither of us really knew our fathers. I’d met mine of course, but then I only knew my dad as a child knows a parent, as a sort of crude outline filled in with one or two colors. I’d never seen my father scared or cry. I’d never heard him admit to any wrongdoing. I have no idea what he dreamed of. And once I’d seen a smile pinned to one cheek and darkness to the other when my mum had yelled at him. Now he was gone, and I was left with just an impression—one of male warmth, big arms, and loud laughter. ↗

— Lloyd Jones

#fathers #dreams

Now you tell me, when a father goes ahead and washes diapers or performs some other mean task for his child, and someone ridicules him as an effeminate fool, though that father is acting in the spirit just described and in Christian faith, my dear fellow you tell me, which of the two is most keenly ridiculing the other? God, with all his angels and creatures, is smiling, not because that father is washing diapers, but because he is doing so in Christian faith. Those who sneer at him and see only the task but not the faith are ridiculing God with all his creatures, as the biggest fool on earth. Indeed, they are only ridiculing themselves; with all their cleverness they are nothing but devil’s fools. ↗

— Martin Luther

#servant-leader #faith

I never knew my father. I saw him at a party once, but he never walked over and introduced himself to me.
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— Jarod Kintz

#father #funny #humor #introduce #introduction

We had our family patterns and were quite comfortable in them, which made it even more shocking when, just after his eightieth birthday, Papa began bringing up his time as a prisoner of war in Germany. Of course, I had always known that he had served in World War II and been captured, just like I had always know the stories about my grandmother and the build of their house. It's that peculiar type of family memory, where someone has obviously told you but you were too young to remember actually hearing it, so it seems like knowledge that was instilled at birth. Papa never brought it up, and my parents said they hadn't heard him mention it once in the previous fifty years. But suddenly, he was talking. ↗

— Jesse Cozean

#jesse-cozean #memoir #my-grandfather-s-war #patton #world-war-ii

Oh, my father, such a difficult man. His world turned on his axis. From "The Father Tamer" in BREATHE IN ↗

— Eileen Granfors

#discipline #families #father #love #secrets

I know you're no worse than most men but I thought you were better. I never saw you as a man. I saw you as my father. ↗

— Arthur Miller

#fathers-and-sons #family

The sword of the Spirit has been muffled up and decked out with flowers and ribbons," author writes, conveying the sentiments of a Congregationist minister on men's ceding of moral and religious instruction and correction as women's work. ↗

— Nancy Pearcey

#leadership #leadership

To be a child means to owe one's existence to another, and even in our adult life we never quite reach the point where we no longer have to give thanks for being the person we are. ↗

— Hans Urs von Balthasar

#christ #christianity #god #god-father #god-son

Soaking is also positioning yourself for an encounter with God, to be with Him. You do the positioning, He does the encounter. ↗

— Linda Boone

#intimacy #real-love #soaking #life

No one is ever quite ready; everyone is always caught off guard. Parenthood chooses you. And you open your eyes, look at what you've got, say "Oh, my gosh," and recognize that of all the balls there ever were, this is the one you should not drop. It's not a question of choice. ↗

— Marisa de los Santos

#father #mom #mother #parenthood #parenting