Champions For Life The Power Of A Father's Blessing

You may not have had a parent who blessed you, a parent who said, ?No matter what, I'll always love you.' Maybe you didn't have a father who protected you, or a father who thought you were special and told you so. You may think, ?I didn't have that, but I turned out all right.' Don't bet on it. Take a moment, search deep inside for a little hole in your heart that still needs to be filled. Don't deny the pain. The only way to heal is to first admit you are hurting. Unless you had a father bless you'or someone who stepped in and became your spiritual father'you have an ache in your soul, a hole in your heart. If you're completely honest with yourself, you know this is true. You know it during those nights you stare at the ceiling and wonder if anyone will ever love and believe in you. Those nights when you're so exhausted, yet can't sleep. Those nights when you know something is wrong, but you're not sure what. It's the longing for the approval of the Father, both on earth and heaven. Words matter. Words can bless or bleed. Words spoken are very hard to take back. I've heard parents say almost flippantly, ?You're stupid.' Or, ?Don't be so dumb.' Or, ?You're so irritating.' Some parents believe these words will make the child shape up and fly right. It's like a challenge, the parent saying, ?Prove me wrong.' All they do is injure the self-image of the child. What a dad whispers in a child's ear sounds like a scream, and the message can heal or wound. A parent's voice is a megaphone straight to the heart of the child. My own son, Bobby, said to me, ?Remember when you yelled at me? I don't remember it that way. I know I didn't yell, I only said something very quietly and calmly'yet in his mind, that was screaming in his ear. I was always very careful never to make negative statements to my children. Even since they've been adults, I've noticed they are very anxious to hear only positive words from me. So I've made an art form of saying things that lift them up, not tear them down. They are now in middle age, and they still want'and need'a blessing from their father. Even now that I have to physically look up to my own sons. Words we heard as children can haunt us into adulthood. Words that blessed us as children can accompany us into old age, long after the person who spoke them into our lives has died. The book of John opens by telling us, ?In the beginning was the Word.' God spoke the world into being. Creation was accomplished through the spoken word of God. And we can speak life into the souls and hearts of our children. Words are how we are to begin blessing our children, as my own father demonstrated. He died at the age of forty-five. I was fourteen. I still remember his presence, his words, his touch, his blessing. Jim Sundberg heard me talking like this one day in a chapel service when he was playing for the Texas Rangers. He was their star catcher, and he came up to me after my message and sGlass, Bill is the author of 'Champions For Life The Power Of A Father's Blessing', published 2005 under ISBN 9780757302503 and ISBN 0757302505.