A good father takes time to play 00:00:01.36\00:00:02.70 He has strong integrity. He is truly someone who is dedicated 00:00:04.73\00:00:09.47 He's not afraid to show his love 00:00:11.64\00:00:14.14 He is a caring provider 00:00:15.51\00:00:18.28 And he's a kind spiritual leader 00:00:19.48\00:00:22.15 These are just a few ways to describe a father's heart. 00:00:22.18\00:00:25.75 Hi and welcome to A Father's Heart. My name is Xavier 00:00:29.72\00:00:32.83 and I'll be your host today. I am a father of two children 00:00:32.86\00:00:36.23 Two little girls. Unfortunately, kids don't come with manuals 00:00:36.26\00:00:39.90 So this program caters to the fathers that are out there 00:00:39.93\00:00:43.27 and we're here to talk about what it's like to be a father 00:00:43.30\00:00:46.57 What is it? What does it take? Do you have to have a manual? 00:00:46.61\00:00:49.51 Do you have to Google anything? And right now we're just gonna 00:00:49.54\00:00:52.35 discuss, and please join us in conversation today 00:00:52.38\00:00:55.48 for the topic of genetics. It's not your child's fault 00:00:55.52\00:00:58.59 With me today is Gordon and Denry. Welcome 00:00:58.62\00:01:02.49 Thank you, thank you. Thanks for having us man 00:01:02.52\00:01:05.09 Denry how many kids do you have? Man I have 3 children 00:01:05.13\00:01:08.63 3 children. 2 boys and a little girl. 00:01:08.66\00:01:11.70 And they are the delight of my life man. They bring me joy 00:01:11.73\00:01:15.04 and they also bring me gray hair but I love them. 00:01:15.07\00:01:18.31 And Gordon? I have 2 children. I have a boy, Justin 00:01:18.81\00:01:22.41 he is 19 years old, on his way to college and my daughter 00:01:22.44\00:01:27.68 she's 16. Both of them are the delight of my life. 00:01:27.72\00:01:31.35 Matter of fact I'm havin tears already in my eyes because 00:01:31.39\00:01:34.59 my son is gonna be leaving home soon, so. I love them. 00:01:34.62\00:01:39.06 Man, I'm looking forward to that day. 00:01:39.09\00:01:41.63 But he's closer to it so it's realistic for him 00:01:41.66\00:01:45.53 But for me I'm countin down. 00:01:45.57\00:01:48.37 12 more years to go, for one. 00:01:48.40\00:01:51.27 You wait until you get to that point, I know, I know 00:01:51.31\00:01:53.51 how hard it is, I'm gonna change my mind, yeah my daughter 00:01:53.54\00:01:56.81 my oldest is 4 years old and then I have a newborn and 00:01:56.85\00:01:59.35 I don't want to grow up. 7 years old, that's good enough for me. 00:01:59.38\00:02:03.18 and stay there, don't go any further. But it's just crazy how 00:02:03.22\00:02:06.69 have you ever heard when they say you know growin up at home 00:02:06.72\00:02:09.96 or anything like that, you know you're just like your father 00:02:09.99\00:02:12.83 Yes man, oh man, my mother Let me grab my pillow for this 00:02:12.86\00:02:17.03 my mother has told me so many times you remind me of your dad 00:02:17.07\00:02:21.54 or you're just like your father. Or you know she would say my 00:02:21.57\00:02:25.11 my dad's name, you're Delvin you know and sometimes in the 00:02:25.14\00:02:28.88 positive but a lot of times in the negative. 00:02:28.91\00:02:32.08 Lot of times in the negative. 00:02:32.11\00:02:34.48 So cast the blame, let's say you're to be blamed for all of 00:02:35.45\00:02:39.19 your father's mistake. And really as fathers we shouldn't 00:02:39.22\00:02:42.96 cast blame. We should be able to take the blame 00:02:42.99\00:02:45.69 from all of our mistakes in ourselves. I think what we 00:02:45.73\00:02:49.23 do as fathers is that we kind of project our mistakes 00:02:49.26\00:02:52.77 on the child and that shouldn't happen because that child 00:02:52.80\00:02:55.90 takes that blame throughout their lifetime. 00:02:55.94\00:02:58.77 And you know what it did for me was that, and my mother did it 00:02:59.67\00:03:05.21 in love, maybe just out of humor but you're just like your 00:03:05.25\00:03:08.22 father, even if I was datin a girl you know, my father was a 00:03:08.25\00:03:11.62 I guess a womanizer would you consider and so she was like 00:03:11.65\00:03:14.32 you know you remember you are your father's son. 00:03:14.36\00:03:16.73 And so the thought would always be in my mind, man even if I had 00:03:16.76\00:03:20.63 good intentions, or a pure mind set because she keeps sayin 00:03:20.66\00:03:25.83 you know you're just like your father maybe I should be more 00:03:25.87\00:03:29.17 like my father. Maybe I should be a womanizer. 00:03:29.20\00:03:32.24 And so those questions were always in my mind 00:03:32.27\00:03:34.48 am I being like my father or am I not? 00:03:34.51\00:03:38.15 So it really didn't help you. Not really, no. 00:03:38.18\00:03:40.62 And it's difficult because like my 4 year old daughter 00:03:40.65\00:03:44.02 she is from my previous marriage and a lot of times 00:03:44.05\00:03:47.76 you know unconsciously some of the things that she does 00:03:47.79\00:03:50.26 kind of play on my mind, I have to catch myself 00:03:50.29\00:03:53.23 because it's difficult you know to separate yourself from that 00:03:53.26\00:03:57.97 when you see some of the traits and everything, whether you 00:03:58.00\00:03:59.77 come from a, whether your child is from a loving, caring home 00:03:59.80\00:04:02.94 or comes from a divorced home it's difficult to be a father 00:04:02.97\00:04:07.38 when you see some of the traits from, you know, the mother 00:04:07.41\00:04:11.15 or anything like that and you have to catch yourself, 00:04:11.18\00:04:13.82 or even when you, like I said I resonate what you said 00:04:13.85\00:04:16.28 Denry because growin up, I grew up in a normal, typical home 00:04:16.32\00:04:20.29 and you know my dad, my mom but there's a lot of times 00:04:20.32\00:04:23.39 my mom would be like, you're just like your father. 00:04:23.43\00:04:25.69 you know, you're just and it made me want to alienate myself 00:04:25.73\00:04:29.26 with you know as far as like my temper and things like that 00:04:29.30\00:04:32.40 my dad, I loved my dad but you know when they said that to me 00:04:32.43\00:04:36.77 why work on myself, why be better, why just not continue 00:04:36.81\00:04:40.78 I mean if I'm just like him why even try? 00:04:40.81\00:04:43.28 What's different for me in my home, my mom never said that 00:04:43.31\00:04:48.88 I was never told that but somehow you know as I got older 00:04:48.92\00:04:53.42 I realized that I'm just like him. You know my dad would 00:04:53.46\00:04:56.96 always have a whole bunch of stuff in his pocket 00:04:56.99\00:04:59.49 receipts whatever it is and it hit me I think I was about 00:04:59.53\00:05:03.77 20, in my 20s and I put my hands in my pocket one day 00:05:03.80\00:05:07.84 and I pulled it out and I'm like Wow I'm just like my dad! 00:05:07.87\00:05:11.61 But I never had that image imprinted in my mind 00:05:11.64\00:05:15.98 but I realized later you know that I'm just like him 00:05:16.01\00:05:19.61 and as a child what I remember clearly is not wanting to be 00:05:19.65\00:05:26.02 like him because he wasn't always home, he worked away 00:05:26.05\00:05:31.23 from home and he'd just come home on the weekends and 00:05:31.26\00:05:33.96 whenever he came home he still didn't have time for us, 00:05:34.00\00:05:37.33 he was out doing everything else. We went to church 00:05:37.37\00:05:41.14 and he was not an Adventist, so it was just myself, my sister 00:05:41.17\00:05:47.34 my adopted brother and my mom But I said to myself, I'm not 00:05:47.38\00:05:52.55 gonna be like him, even workin work ethic, workin all the time 00:05:52.58\00:05:57.65 no time for the family. You know what I realized, I realized that 00:05:57.69\00:06:02.56 even as a pastor I have to really force myself and check 00:06:02.59\00:06:09.86 myself so that I don't become like him just spendin all the 00:06:09.90\00:06:14.24 time workin, workin on this, workin on everything else 00:06:14.27\00:06:17.97 but my family. So I made the effort to slow down and 00:06:18.01\00:06:23.01 realize you know what, you gotta spend time 00:06:23.04\00:06:26.05 with the children. So even though I didn't have that 00:06:26.08\00:06:29.52 imprinted in me because I think it's something in the DNA 00:06:29.55\00:06:32.92 I realized that I have these tendencies as my dad's, I know 00:06:32.95\00:06:38.36 that we can throw it away, I think we need to realize 00:06:38.39\00:06:42.33 that and not blame our children but put the blame on ourselves 00:06:42.36\00:06:47.70 and realize you know what, this is me and I can make some 00:06:47.74\00:06:50.91 corrections here and I like to look to my Heavenly Father 00:06:50.94\00:06:54.68 because I think He doesn't blame us for anything 00:06:54.71\00:06:59.18 He takes the blame on Himself and I think that is what matters 00:06:59.21\00:07:04.19 we're takin the blame on ourselves. Yeah. 00:07:04.22\00:07:06.82 It's interesting he came from that perspective. 00:07:06.86\00:07:09.79 Like you know how much he was trying not to be 00:07:09.82\00:07:12.26 For me, I find myself a genetic match of my dad 00:07:12.29\00:07:16.60 A twin of my dad. I was lookin at a picture what I mean by that 00:07:16.63\00:07:20.34 lookin at a picture, years ago I was in Florida visitin relatives 00:07:20.37\00:07:24.31 my aunt, my dad's sister and opened up the album 00:07:24.34\00:07:30.75 and I saw a picture of myself and I was tryin to say to myself 00:07:30.78\00:07:34.68 when was I at this event, the event that was goin on? 00:07:34.72\00:07:38.32 Like when was this? My aunt was like that's not you 00:07:38.35\00:07:41.92 that's your father. And I was so shocked that I was lookin 00:07:41.96\00:07:47.30 at a picture of my dad but I thought it was me. 00:07:47.33\00:07:50.10 And it's so much, you cannot avoid it sometimes. 00:07:50.13\00:07:54.60 You just can't avoid being who you are. And so you use it 00:07:54.64\00:07:59.81 now I tend to use it now for good to bring out the good 00:07:59.84\00:08:04.28 in my father. The bad stuff like he said, I'll let the Lord 00:08:04.31\00:08:07.82 work those things out. But the good traits of my father 00:08:07.85\00:08:11.12 is humor, those things so now instead of saying I'm not gonna 00:08:11.15\00:08:14.52 be like my father, my father is in me which I had no choice 00:08:14.56\00:08:18.39 to be like my father. 00:08:18.43\00:08:19.76 I think we make a choice, we have to make a conscious choice 00:08:19.79\00:08:23.43 to say you know what, I'm not gonna go down this road 00:08:23.47\00:08:26.07 and a lot of fathers are not making those conscious choices 00:08:26.10\00:08:30.31 This is not where I wanna go, I want to be different 00:08:31.27\00:08:34.24 I'm going to model something else or someone else 00:08:34.28\00:08:38.25 sometimes we don't have that right image from our 00:08:38.28\00:08:42.35 biological fathers but we can find somebody to model 00:08:42.38\00:08:47.52 whereby we can choose to make different choices. 00:08:47.56\00:08:51.89 That's the thing you know, we have to you say come to a 00:08:51.93\00:08:55.33 realization of it because that's affecting us as fathers 00:08:55.36\00:08:58.83 Whether we like it or not it's affecting us consciously or 00:08:58.87\00:09:01.90 unconsciously and it's ok in a way to say, you know, it's there 00:09:01.94\00:09:07.18 but it's not ok to keep going with it. If we know it's 00:09:07.21\00:09:10.35 something wrong, especially where we raise our children 00:09:10.38\00:09:12.78 because then we keep that generational sin essentially 00:09:12.81\00:09:15.85 that generational mishap, you know, going with our kids and 00:09:15.88\00:09:19.95 you know I think about it with my dad, I love, like I said, 00:09:19.99\00:09:22.72 I love my dad, he was very authoritarian so it was my way 00:09:22.76\00:09:27.60 or the highway and for me I've taken a different approach 00:09:27.63\00:09:30.40 it's been difficult, it hasn't been perfect and I've had to 00:09:30.43\00:09:34.00 pray about it a lot and study a lot and really come to a 00:09:34.04\00:09:37.07 realization, you know, I don't want to make the same mistakes 00:09:37.11\00:09:40.41 kinda like what you said Denry, you know, you bring out the good 00:09:40.44\00:09:43.75 and my dad is great but I'm trying to do the good there, he 00:09:43.78\00:09:47.18 the good qualities that he has and I talk to my kids, I 00:09:47.22\00:09:50.92 dialogue with them and instead of saying my way or the highway 00:09:50.95\00:09:54.46 I kind of, even though she's 4 and my newborn she's goo and gaa 00:09:54.49\00:10:00.40 but my wife and I give her the attention recognizing that from 00:10:00.43\00:10:04.60 now we're giving you the attention you need 00:10:04.63\00:10:06.77 not perfect because I'm gonna mess up but at least I know 00:10:06.80\00:10:10.61 I can do better than what I did before and it's taking 00:10:10.64\00:10:13.91 a lot of work, you know men are prideful and we're father 00:10:13.94\00:10:17.48 you know, we don't make mistakes so it's different, I mean I 00:10:17.51\00:10:21.08 don't know, what do you think about that? 00:10:21.12\00:10:22.92 I mean what do you do with that? 00:10:22.95\00:10:24.52 Well in my case I'm torn between two worlds. 00:10:24.55\00:10:28.02 my biological father and then my step father. 00:10:28.06\00:10:31.89 Actually, three worlds. My biological father, my stepfather 00:10:31.93\00:10:35.86 and then my Father in heaven 00:10:35.90\00:10:37.70 Hmm. Right. But my biological father, genetically, 00:10:37.73\00:10:42.00 things come out. Uh huh. And he's not around you know, so I 00:10:42.04\00:10:46.34 want to ask questions about certain things, my temperament 00:10:46.37\00:10:49.94 and these things but he's not around, so I can't ask him 00:10:49.98\00:10:53.21 But then I noticed I've adapted things from my stepfather 00:10:53.25\00:10:58.02 who's not my biological father but because he was around 00:10:58.05\00:11:02.19 he's the one who raised me, you know, I found myself 00:11:02.22\00:11:06.06 patterned and I said the same thing to God, I don't want to be 00:11:06.09\00:11:09.03 like you when I grow up. 00:11:09.06\00:11:10.40 Because there were some things goin on in our home 00:11:10.43\00:11:12.73 and I find out I'm just like him, so I'm like my biological 00:11:12.77\00:11:17.44 father, I'm like my stepfather both for some of the good 00:11:17.47\00:11:20.94 and some of the bad. And I have to consciously, literally 00:11:20.98\00:11:24.81 just like man, it's almost like you're saying to yourself 00:11:24.85\00:11:29.22 who am I going to be today? Who am I going to be today? 00:11:29.25\00:11:34.69 I'll tell you. this is kinda tuggin at my heart's strings 00:11:35.76\00:11:40.80 and I'm tryin to hold it together 00:11:40.83\00:11:43.97 I love my dad and so let me just put this disclaimer out there 00:11:44.00\00:11:49.57 But there's things he did, how I was raised, he was never 00:11:50.37\00:11:57.88 bein there, he was never there 00:11:57.91\00:11:59.91 I resented that whole, my father for a long time 00:11:59.95\00:12:05.89 to the point where when he got sick 00:12:09.86\00:12:16.26 I now didn't have time for him 00:12:17.50\00:12:19.83 Wow, wow, wow 00:12:19.87\00:12:21.87 I did everything not to be available 00:12:23.00\00:12:27.51 Then he got blind and he needed me and would call me 00:12:28.14\00:12:33.31 yeah, it affected me and I didn't know how much 00:12:33.35\00:12:38.05 it affected me. I literally had to look outside of my father 00:12:38.09\00:12:46.70 and outside of the pain and really ask God to 00:12:46.73\00:12:51.33 change my heart because my heart was real locked 00:12:51.37\00:12:56.57 where my dad was concerned. And it's just because there was no 00:12:56.60\00:12:59.54 time. There was no time. I mean we would go ridin in the car 00:12:59.57\00:13:03.75 we would go do some things but it was different, we were always 00:13:03.78\00:13:06.88 goin to somebody's house and there it was just me over there 00:13:06.92\00:13:11.52 and my dad is doin what he needs to do, 00:13:11.55\00:13:13.76 so I was always by myself. So when you get to that point 00:13:13.79\00:13:17.36 when I'm grown I don't have time for you when you need me 00:13:18.33\00:13:24.67 The older he got, he got sick, in a nursing home 00:13:24.70\00:13:30.14 I wouldn't go. God had to work on my heart. 00:13:30.17\00:13:34.84 I had to start to see my father through the eyes of my 00:13:35.81\00:13:38.45 Heavenly Father and I thank God that I was able to come to grips 00:13:38.48\00:13:44.45 with that. And were able to go to the nursing home, singin, 00:13:44.49\00:13:50.03 prayin and talk to him and develop that relationship 00:13:50.06\00:13:56.80 that we really didn't have and I really had to forgive my dad 00:13:56.83\00:14:01.90 to move forward or I'd never be able to move forward 00:14:01.94\00:14:05.47 So the genetics really played into my life and the one thing 00:14:05.51\00:14:11.61 that I definitely wanted to make sure that I'm not in the same 00:14:11.65\00:14:17.35 place with my son and my daughter. 00:14:17.39\00:14:18.72 So I do everything that I can. Am I perfect? No. 00:14:19.75\00:14:23.19 I make mistakes, yes but I share with them 00:14:23.22\00:14:28.36 I talk with them, we have fun and I spend that time because I 00:14:28.40\00:14:33.64 want this generational issue to stop. 00:14:33.67\00:14:36.47 You know it mustn't go past me. Because I don't want them to 00:14:37.21\00:14:40.64 feel and experience the pain I experienced. 00:14:40.68\00:14:42.64 I've been sharing a word with my son - legacy. 00:14:42.68\00:14:45.71 My older son I've really been on him about this. What is the 00:14:46.95\00:14:51.35 legacy that you are creating for your children? 00:14:51.39\00:14:56.16 The next generation, even for your brothers and sisters. 00:14:56.19\00:14:59.36 And a lot of times we look at our dads and we feel like 00:15:00.33\00:15:05.77 that's when the world started. Our dads, We forget they had 00:15:05.80\00:15:09.24 a father too. Yeah. And they had a grandfather and sometimes 00:15:09.27\00:15:14.04 we have good legacies that are continued or bad legacies. 00:15:14.08\00:15:18.68 My step dad, right, similar to Gordon, deep tissue moment here 00:15:18.71\00:15:23.89 my step dad, he, he and I love the guy. I love him 00:15:23.92\00:15:29.69 I love him. I love both of them 00:15:29.72\00:15:32.96 But he took the time, for him to come into my life 00:15:32.99\00:15:36.13 and take me on as his son, it took a long time but I didn't 00:15:36.16\00:15:39.63 I didn't see that because he got married to my mother when I was 00:15:39.67\00:15:44.87 about 11 years old so I expect him to become this father 00:15:44.91\00:15:47.78 champion to take me up to the playground, take me everywhere 00:15:47.81\00:15:51.25 teach me how to play bat, all these things that I wanted 00:15:51.28\00:15:53.65 but he didn't do that. He was actually neglecting me 00:15:53.68\00:15:58.09 and I was blamin and I was mad and resentful, I was resentful 00:15:58.12\00:16:03.66 he used to call me when I was in college he wanted me to fix 00:16:03.69\00:16:06.26 the computer or say something, I hated his answers, his phone 00:16:06.29\00:16:10.57 calls but I come to find out, his real father, we had a heart 00:16:10.60\00:16:15.54 to heart and he told me his real father his biological father 00:16:15.57\00:16:20.24 totally neglected him and the guy only lived maybe less than 00:16:20.28\00:16:25.55 50 miles from him and up to this day would not pick up the phone 00:16:25.58\00:16:29.92 to call him. But now my father and I, I mean we're like, I'm 00:16:29.95\00:16:35.79 like buddies and anytime he calls me I can call him 00:16:35.82\00:16:40.10 and it's like a good dialogue 00:16:40.13\00:16:41.90 because we've had that heart to heart. 00:16:41.93\00:16:44.07 We've talked about the bad legacy and now we decided 00:16:44.10\00:16:47.14 we want to establish a new, good, sound legacy 00:16:47.17\00:16:51.11 in Jesus Christ. Hmm. 00:16:51.14\00:16:52.97 I like that because again we are genetically predisposed to 00:16:53.01\00:16:57.35 somethings you know but it's up to us not to blame our 00:16:57.38\00:17:00.48 children, I mean it's not their fault. It's not their fault 00:17:00.52\00:17:03.59 the way they are. There are some things they're gonna do 00:17:03.62\00:17:05.55 because they have the character like my daughter Ann 00:17:05.59\00:17:09.22 when I deal with her sometimes it's like a reflection of myself 00:17:09.26\00:17:13.19 It's frustrating. I'm like I wanna Ahh and then I'm like 00:17:13.23\00:17:17.33 wait a minute. What did I do when I was a child? 00:17:17.37\00:17:19.07 Ok I did worse. Never mind, let's talk about, it's difficult 00:17:19.10\00:17:23.30 you know but I look at it as, ok you're genetically predisposed 00:17:23.34\00:17:28.11 you have the DNA that's just how it is from both mom and dad 00:17:28.14\00:17:32.11 so a lot of the traits that she has are my own. And like my 00:17:32.15\00:17:35.82 parents told me you gonna pay for the things that you did 00:17:35.85\00:17:38.75 when you were a kid. I see it. I'm like Lord did I, I did worse 00:17:38.79\00:17:43.12 I'm like what do I do with this what can I do with this? 00:17:43.16\00:17:45.49 And I try to address her, you know, in a way she'll understand 00:17:45.53\00:17:49.86 and maintain discipline but at the same time it's difficult 00:17:49.90\00:17:53.94 because nobody comes from a perfect home 00:17:53.97\00:17:57.77 Hmm. Nobody. And we have to turn, it sounds cliché but 00:17:57.81\00:18:02.61 it's true we have to turn to the Father, you know, God the Father 00:18:02.64\00:18:06.51 to understand you know that our kids are not going to be what 00:18:06.55\00:18:12.19 we necessarily want them to be a 100%. But they're gonna be our 00:18:12.22\00:18:16.69 kids no matter what. You know even after death we're still 00:18:16.73\00:18:19.56 gonna be remembered as the father of this child. 00:18:19.59\00:18:21.90 And it's just hard. It's difficult because again 00:18:21.93\00:18:26.77 all you wanna do is, you're just like, you're just like 00:18:26.80\00:18:29.94 as a cop out, not to deal with the issue. But you're hurting 00:18:29.97\00:18:35.04 your child and you're just alienating your child and I just 00:18:35.08\00:18:38.88 you know, what do you do in situations where you know, 00:18:38.91\00:18:42.78 your temper is up because your child is doin something that you 00:18:42.82\00:18:46.52 know they're doin, do you ever take the time to think that 00:18:46.55\00:18:49.49 maybe you did that or worse? What do you think? 00:18:49.52\00:18:51.99 I think you have to take time out when your tempers are up 00:18:52.03\00:18:55.66 and you're about to really go into your child. Uh huh 00:18:55.70\00:19:00.04 Maybe it's best at that point when you're upset 00:19:00.07\00:19:04.04 to back out, to just pause and say, you know what I'm gonna 00:19:04.07\00:19:10.58 deal with this when I'm calm because if you deal with that 00:19:10.61\00:19:14.12 child when your temper, you know when you're flaring 00:19:14.15\00:19:16.85 let me take you into a window of my little life 00:19:16.89\00:19:20.69 ummm, growin up, that little readin book and for some reason 00:19:22.09\00:19:28.86 I couldn't get this word Joe and I would say 00:19:28.90\00:19:34.24 Mr. Toe builds a house instead of Mr. Joe builds a house 00:19:34.27\00:19:38.61 and my daddy, if I'm readin, he's there, he would just 00:19:38.64\00:19:44.91 be so mad and he'd go in and I tell you that would just freeze 00:19:44.95\00:19:52.22 I mean lock me up and for a long time readin became a problem 00:19:52.25\00:20:01.23 because all I would feel is hands comin or and I think 00:20:02.73\00:20:11.34 it's the same thing when we're upset instead of takin it out 00:20:11.37\00:20:17.78 on the child, pause, take a moment, walk away 00:20:17.81\00:20:24.15 then come back and deal with the issue. When you're calm, 00:20:24.19\00:20:28.52 when you're more rational, your thoughts are clearer 00:20:28.56\00:20:31.63 then you can actually deal with the issue. Instead of 00:20:31.66\00:20:35.06 right there in that moment because what you do you can 00:20:35.10\00:20:37.97 can cause traumatic effect to, to really affect the child 00:20:38.00\00:20:44.97 I'd really just pause, walk away 00:20:45.01\00:20:47.41 Man, I have made so many mistakes by just being a father 00:20:47.44\00:20:55.28 I have made so many mistakes by tryin to not be like my father 00:20:56.25\00:21:01.86 Oh Lord. Both of them. And just like, similar to you 00:21:01.89\00:21:07.13 I have done that where I have reprimanded my child or uh uh 00:21:07.16\00:21:12.37 you know he's havin a hard time readin and because I'm bein 00:21:12.40\00:21:16.71 impatient, yes, and it's for my glory, not for his benefit 00:21:16.74\00:21:22.71 because I want my son to excel, I want him to be this A+ student 00:21:22.74\00:21:28.62 in school, I want him to be the spelling bee champion 00:21:28.65\00:21:31.22 so that I can look good and feel good about myself 00:21:31.25\00:21:34.96 I'm bein impatient with him and so when he's readin and I'm like 00:21:34.99\00:21:40.30 how many times are we gonna go over this word? 00:21:40.33\00:21:42.40 you just said this word. But I'm forgettin he was a child 00:21:42.43\00:21:46.43 and I sometimes, you know the funny thing that God does 00:21:46.47\00:21:49.44 with us, we have flashbacks sometimes of our childhood 00:21:49.47\00:21:52.87 My word was "the" I couldn't get that word "the". Two words 00:21:52.91\00:21:59.11 the and the number 3. I'm West Indian so sometimes I have 00:21:59.15\00:22:03.79 difficulty in sayin the number 3 I say tree. Hmm. And even now 00:22:03.82\00:22:09.82 while I'm tryin to say it I have to think about making sure I'm 00:22:09.86\00:22:12.53 I'm sayin it right. And so my mom was like you know having a 00:22:12.56\00:22:16.40 difficulty with me but now my son was having difficulties 00:22:16.43\00:22:19.77 and instead of me bein patient and rememberin how hard it was 00:22:19.80\00:22:24.64 when I was tryin to read now I want my son to just overnight 00:22:24.67\00:22:29.41 get it. So that you can make me proud and I can walk around 00:22:29.44\00:22:33.78 with my chest high. But God wants us to be patient, He's 00:22:33.82\00:22:36.95 patient with us. Yeah. But we don't want to be patient 00:22:36.99\00:22:39.89 with our kids. 00:22:39.92\00:22:41.52 Yeah. One Sabbath morning, well after church, sorry Sabbath 00:22:41.56\00:22:45.69 afternoon my son did something he was very young 00:22:45.73\00:22:52.40 and I got real upset, that flashback that was my dad 00:22:52.43\00:22:57.47 kind of flashback. And I you know, Lord forgive me but I 00:22:57.51\00:23:04.18 used the rod and I spanked him so much 00:23:04.21\00:23:11.49 that he actually cut his feet. Mercy! 00:23:11.52\00:23:16.09 On the side of the bed. I'm not proud of it. Mercy! 00:23:16.12\00:23:18.99 And he was bleedin. Mercy. And I didn't stop 00:23:20.00\00:23:26.00 To think of how much it affected him. And I prayed he doesn't 00:23:27.80\00:23:33.17 remember the stuff, you know. My wife had to come and say 00:23:33.21\00:23:37.28 that's enough. He was a child. And I stopped. 00:23:37.31\00:23:43.08 Never ever when you're angry or upset spank your child 00:23:43.82\00:23:49.62 Walk away and then when you're clear you can come back 00:23:49.66\00:23:54.73 and deal with the issues. Yeah. 00:23:54.76\00:23:56.93 It's a lot. I mean you do that you get angry, you wanna as men 00:23:58.17\00:24:03.10 we wanna react, we wanna stop, we wanna discipline the child 00:24:03.14\00:24:07.91 make sure they stop but like you said, never, never ever 00:24:07.94\00:24:11.75 hit your child when you're angry you know and do anything like 00:24:11.78\00:24:14.98 that. Don't discipline, just walk away, take a breather 00:24:15.02\00:24:18.32 come back when you have your head right. 00:24:18.35\00:24:21.26 And then you'll see you know, cause other times when you 00:24:21.29\00:24:24.26 spank your child or discipline you know, you regret it later 00:24:24.29\00:24:28.83 you know it hurts. Because you are like you know, I probably 00:24:28.86\00:24:31.77 should've done that differently but again we're mimicking what 00:24:31.80\00:24:36.30 we grew up with. It goes back to the whole genetic predisposition 00:24:36.34\00:24:39.84 and we were doin what we were taught to do. 00:24:39.87\00:24:41.74 So I don't know. Anybody out there have you gone through 00:24:42.34\00:24:45.75 anything like that? Ha ha ha I'm sorry I'm not laughin 00:24:45.78\00:24:49.82 at you, I'm laughin because you know this is right on. You know 00:24:49.85\00:24:54.32 And I'm not tryin to be philosophical or psychological 00:24:54.36\00:24:59.96 But I wonder sometimes the reason why we're so hard on 00:25:00.00\00:25:04.37 our children is because of some insecurity that we have 00:25:04.40\00:25:08.84 of ourself. Hmm. We're trying to make them and mold them to be 00:25:08.87\00:25:14.01 perfect because, you ever hear of you know like the dads who 00:25:14.04\00:25:19.71 take their children to the playground, first they're just 00:25:19.75\00:25:22.95 having fun but after a while they're gettin them into high 00:25:22.98\00:25:25.75 school volley ball or football team and they're tryin to 00:25:25.79\00:25:28.76 relive their dreams through their child. 00:25:28.79\00:25:32.93 And they push them harder than their coach or their trainer 00:25:32.96\00:25:36.40 why you, why did you drop the ball? I remember watching the 00:25:36.43\00:25:39.60 show a long time ago and the guy had a fumble in the game 00:25:39.63\00:25:43.51 and everybody forgave the guy I mean the team they got the 00:25:43.54\00:25:48.34 ball back but the father was so hard on the son for fumblin 00:25:48.38\00:25:52.88 the ball. Later on in the story to find out the father failed 00:25:52.91\00:25:57.22 he got kicked off the team because of his drinking habits 00:25:57.25\00:26:00.96 and he was like tryin to relive his complete, his, his past 00:26:00.99\00:26:07.16 through his child. And so a lot of times I feel that that's why 00:26:07.20\00:26:11.30 we are so hard on our child because we're insecure of our 00:26:11.33\00:26:15.10 failures so we try to make our children perfect 00:26:15.14\00:26:18.57 But I thank God that's not how God treats us. 00:26:18.61\00:26:22.01 I thank God He don't treat us that way. 00:26:22.04\00:26:24.41 I don't think that the only thing is insecurity though 00:26:24.45\00:26:26.78 I think it's because sometimes what we have actually learned 00:26:26.82\00:26:34.72 from our parents, from our fathers that we project 00:26:34.76\00:26:39.39 that on our children and some men are sure about themselves 00:26:39.43\00:26:44.67 but we don't know how to do anything else, you know, we just 00:26:44.70\00:26:48.54 don't know how to. I'm not proud of some of the things 00:26:48.57\00:26:51.61 that I've done to my children especially my son, because 00:26:51.64\00:26:56.98 he was the firstborn and I wanted to sure that he was solid 00:26:57.01\00:27:02.35 you know, so I poured everything negative and positive into him 00:27:02.38\00:27:06.79 If I can take some of the stuff back, I would 00:27:06.82\00:27:09.52 I think for our viewers at home being a father is not easy 00:27:10.63\00:27:15.23 it never was meant to be easy 00:27:15.26\00:27:17.83 but it's not impossible. We have a Father in heaven 00:27:17.87\00:27:21.64 who deals with us on a constant basis when we're disobedient 00:27:21.67\00:27:26.27 we're rebellious, we're messin up. 00:27:26.31\00:27:29.24 He never deals with us in anger, if He did 00:27:29.28\00:27:31.95 you know we'd need more protection. 00:27:31.98\00:27:34.48 But we have a Father in heaven who loves us 00:27:34.52\00:27:37.65 And even though we're not perfect, He is and He's willing 00:27:37.69\00:27:41.46 to help to be the best fathers we can be. 00:27:41.49\00:27:45.29 So please take some time, take some time with your children 00:27:45.33\00:27:49.03 and love them the way God loves you. 00:27:49.06\00:27:52.60 Thank you. 00:27:52.63\00:27:54.17