Lion Heart ENCOURAGE – Father father

Intro:

‘Father father’, a longing call in every daughters heart today. We have an undeniable task and responsibility towards our daughters in this day and age. We’re attempting to father a generation that has been taught that men and masculinity are bad. But yet we play a pivotal role in the forming of our daughters hearts in a Godly and gentle manner.

Some of you haven’t had the best upbringing yourself. I get that. But let not our past define our future!

I am a strong advocate for the fact that raising a family is a team effort. Boys and girls need Mums and Dads. Both a Mum and a Dad play a crucial role in the forming and directing of our children’s hearts. But being a Lion Heart post today, I’m speaking to the Dads and their daughters.

Encouragement

To the father whose daughter is going through a ‘stage’. Be encouraged, it is just a ‘stage’, and she will get through it. I say again, take heart, she will get through it. Honestly, from my experience raising two sons and two daughters, take a lesson from the game of golf, don’t hold the club to tightly, it’ll mess up your shot. A relaxed grip, and an easy swing result in a far better drive, than holding too tightly.

She is not just acting out. She is responding to the father she does or doesn’t have. Young girls don't become hypersexual by accident. Young women don't shut down emotionally by accident. Every behaviour in a young woman comes from the environment she grew up in. And as fathers we play a bigger role than most people would like to admit. Yes, with manhood comes authority, but also with manhood comes responsibility!

In a home where there is no father, or in a home with an absent father, a girl grows up starving for male validation. This will most likely negatively affect her character when she is grown up. Hypersexuality comes about not because she is wild, nor because she is rebellious, but because she never internalised what healthy masculine love looks like. Often, when she grows up, any man who pays attention to her feels like a lifeline. She might well confuse attention with affection. She might well confuse sexual access with love.

When a father is inconsistent, hot one minute, cold the next, a daughter might develop an insecure wiring. She becomes one of two extremes. either hypersexual and searching for closeness in physical intimacy or emotionally shut down because closeness never felt safe growing up. She learns to either chase love or completely avoid it.

On the other hand, rigid masculinity doesn't create safety at all, it creates resistance. Your daughter doesn't need more rules. She doesn't need more punishments. She doesn't need more lectures. She needs your presence, your structure, and your calm, masculine leadership. She needs a man who shows her what safety feels like so she doesn't go chasing danger later. A girl becomes a woman through her mother, but she becomes secure through her father. Her self-worth, her boundaries, her relationship with men, her sexuality, all shaped by him. If her father doesn't teach her that she's valuable, she will spend years giving herself to men who do not value her either.

So, what does masculinity look like when we observe Jesus. Jesus’ masculinity centres on self-sacrificial love, moral courage, and humble service rather than dominance and force. Hear me here, force hardly ever has a place in our fathering endeavours. Hollywood reinforces the notion that force is the ultimate solution. But Jesus teaches us that sacrifice is the ultimate solution.

There are too many scriptures to list, but here are a few from which we as men can draw direction and inspiration.

When we read through the New Testament, many masculine traits stand out, we can see His strength under pressure, He determination when persecuted, His kindness towards the humble, His wisdom in tricky situations, but most of all:

Mark 10:45

“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

John 15:13

“There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

About marriage, Eph 5:25

“For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her.”

Jesus is so way above us brothers, “He is just too wonderful for comprehension, to marvellous for words, like nothing ever seen or heard. Who can grasp His infinite wisdom, who can fathom the depths of His love”!

And yet, He invites us to join Him!! He invites us to be with Him. He invites us to be His very own possession!

Wow. Thank you Jesus, we are truly ETERNALLY grateful for your goodness and love!

Bless you brothers, and may I bless you in pursuing Jesus to be a better father to you daughters!

Sincerely,

Stanley

(Human author.)