Fathers Stand Up

Some years ago, officials at the Kruger National Park and game reserve in South Africa were faced with a growing problem; too many elephants in the park. A plan was devised to relocate some of the elephants to another African game reserve. During the moving process it was discovered that transporting the females and babies was easier due to the large size of the males. So they left the older males behind. A few years after the transport something strange started to happen, the juvenile males were becoming aggressive and violently killing other animals in the new park. It was chaos.

After much research, it was discovered that the absents of the mature bull elephants was the culprit. Quickly they flew in male role models and the bizarre and violent behavior of the juvenile elephants stopped completely in weeks. The mature bulls let the young males know their behaviors were not acceptable . In a short time, the younger elephants were following the older and more dominant bulls around while learning how to be mature elephants.

Fathers, just like the juvenile elephant our children follow and learn how to live from us. Our children need to hear about the good things we saw and heard that caused us to be honest, work hard, and respectable. They need to know some of our “When-I- was-a-child…” stories. They will believe what they see and hear. Their beliefs, convictions and general outlook on life are formed and nurtured in the home, for better or worse. Children are innocent, inexperience, void of understanding, and neutral in disposition. They are prisoners of the environment we create or allow. They are dependent!

Life will do us no favors nor accept excuses for our children. The principles of life don’t change for the age or time. Teach them that a good person chooses to think good thoughts, not to say profaned words, do good deeds, go to good places, hang with good people, and find reasons not to fight. Remember your actions speak louder than your words.

Fathers and older men, it is our job to stand up and lead our juveniles to effective living for today and tomorrow.

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