Oddly enough, I can still remember the timbre of the announcer's voice at the beginning of the show. What a happy family they portrayed. The two girls' nicknames were "princess" and "kitten." Personally, I wanted to be princess because I thought Kitten was a little goofy looking.
On the show's website, I learned that it's purpose was to change the image of the bumbling, inept husbands and fathers portrayed in the TV shows of the 1950's. It was supposed to influence families and represent the new ideal of what the American family could be. The sponsor of the show...
Guess what brand I started smoking as a teenager?
I can see now that this program and others like it, influenced me to such a degree that it changed my behavior and gave me an example of what a father should be like. I'm not disregarding my own father at all, I adored him. But he wasn't like Robert Young.
2012 has been without a doubt, the most difficult year of my life. If you know me well, then you know I analyze almost everything. It's part of the way I'm wired and as I think about the various influences in my life, I can see a pattern. I sometimes strive for an ideal that's false or unrealistic, and as a result, I end up questioning God.
Incidentally, this was the God of my childhood:
So, although this year was extremely difficult and filled with suffering, I am grateful. The One, true God has been reshaping me. He's changing the way I think and behave. He's been carving away - cutting out the things in me that do not resemble His son. Only one word describes this process...
Ouch!
And yet, I'm still grateful and will continue to submit myself to his steady and gentle hand. This Father, really does know best.
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined - and everyone undergoes discipline - then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Hebrews 12:7-8
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