From Fatherless to Fatherful

Chapter 1 From Fatherless to Father-full Filling your God shaped void, with nothing less than the Father. “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling” (Psalm 68:5, NIV) Love is a hefty emotion that we most correlate with happiness. A feeling that we cannot seem to shake when we attain it, one that drives us mad and keeps us going back for more and more. During the era of the eighties a fellow by the name of Robert Palmer debuted a song called ‘Addicted to Love’; this song won a Grammy award for record of the year, four MTV video awards, and has been covered by over six other artists. When you dive into the lyrics, you can understand why “It's closer to the truth to say you can't get enough You know you're gonna have to face it, you're addicted to love”. Can you resonate with these lyrics, maybe say I feel you? A little louder for the people in the back? Fast forward to 2022 and we can see the theme of that song, (being addicted to love) coming to fruition. Although we claim that we can do things on our own, maybe that ‘we don’t need love’ our personal lives may say otherwise. Through our involvement with a social media addiction, gaining likes through our posts, checking our apps to see if we have any messages, and becoming paid influencers…we all have this innate craving, to feel and be loved and cherished. If reviewing this psychologically and biologically it’s in our DNA. Simply put, all animal kingdoms have a need for love at the lowest level to the highest functioning. The first glimpse of love remembered is one that has been received (in the best scenario) from our parent(s). As they birth us into this world, they too are filled with a love that only something of a higher power can deliver, unconditional and true agape . As we need their sustenance to survive, we end up being obligated to be in their care. Usually this is a benefit, and thus as a result lends to overflowing love. As continuous exposure proves, we simulate and develop personality traits and characteristics that make our sense of value and self-esteem secure and concrete. Known to be our supreme attachment figures, our parents teach us how to potentially communicate, form relations, and handle conflict. Without that paternal sense of direction, we may become unsure of who we are, we may wander around addicted to finding love in any capacity. In a recent Facebook post, a video illustrated how a father had invested the time in his daughter annually, taking her out to a restaurant so that she could develop the understanding of how she should be treated had she been courted as an adult. This loving father dressed to the nines while her mother dressed her accordingly. He then ran a few errands and when it was time for their father-daughter date, he rang the doorbell asked the mother for his daughter, took her hand, opened the door for her and escorted her on their way. The daughter lit up with joy and amazement in this short segment, seemingly impressed with how her father made her feel that evening, this desirable feeling of being loved and cherished. We can gawk about this beautiful act, marvel about his compassion, or we can claim it to be just for show. Ultimately though we can agree that this illustration visualizes how a father can affect a daughter. We know (by this an many other examples) how much power a parent, especially a father has over the psychological development of a child.