father; Father

I have to again give credit too No Impact Man. He has a knack for asking the questions that seem to get me wanting to say things. The following is a response to his blog entry for today. I again wanted to share it here.

I am a parent of three boys. I also believe in God. Since becoming the former, my appreciation for the later has greatly increased. I love my kids with everything I have in me to love with. There are very few things that I would not do for them. But I have learned that the only way sometimes for them to learn a lesson is to make a choice and to learn from that choice. This doesn’t mean that I will let them jump off a bridge to learn that it will kill you, but it does mean that sometimes I will let them misuse something they care about to learn that it will break. I’ll also let them argue with each other, sometimes incessantly, because I know that when one of them is hurt or in trouble they are there to help them up or to protect them. I will allow them choice, and I will allow them “suffering”. I will, however, nurture them, love them regardless of their choices, and help them to repair any damage they’ve caused. These are lessons I learned from my father, and I hope my children will learn from me.
It is common to refer to people as “playing God”. Doctors can keep people alive when perhaps they shouldn’t be, or even create life through science and technology, but giving life is only half of the equation. God doesn’t just give life; He helps you to learn how to appreciate it and to preserve it. He gives us free will to make choices, and I believe he steers us toward the right ones if we let Him. How does this relate to the planet? Well, I believe that some of us are waking to the fact that we’ve been allowed to misuse it. We’ve exercised our choice, and we are learning the lessons. Some have started to repair the damage as best they can; perhaps while others have not yet learned that any damage has been done. Some have suffered floods, famines, heat waves, while others have come to their aid. Because somewhere deep down we know we’re brothers. We’re related to each other. Maybe not by blood or birth, but something ties us together. This is why I have hope. These are the lessons I learned from my Father.