Power in his presence

You can receive magnificent influence by being around certain people. We hear so much about not picking up horrible habits from negative people, but what about being positively impacted by the exact opposite. Now, before you start asking yourself “is she talking about a New Age-ism religion” allow me a moment to pause and explain.

I’m referring to fathers.

The realization on the importance of having a father figure in your life is significant moment that I've come to know. I’m not talking about a male that makes a child but a man that raises that child. To take it steps further a man striving to raise their children in a way to honor the Creator. All of this is a pretty hefty task, one that I can only imagine.

As I’m out and about throughout my day my I like to people watch. Do you do this? Sometimes it is unintentional while other times I do it purposefully. You can tell a lot by watching people. Confidence or the lack of, the organized or not, all in all it is interestingt; especially when you watch families.

On Saturday I visited my new Florida favorite drive thru that I affectionately call “The Chick”. As usual the line was long & as it quickly moved along I took this opportunity to log new entries into the people watch catalog. What I found made me smile. Through the window I counted five families sitting, enjoying “The Chick” not on their cell phones or other electronic gadgets. There was laughter, eye contact & surprisingly each table had what appeared to be a Dad.

Gulp. I know right, it was a little hard for me to swallow also. Why? Because this isn’t the typical American scene.  It wasn’t in my home or for many others of you. What I’ve seen are the mothers out with the kids, sometimes looking flustered. One child could be swinging from the ceiling while the other is having a six year old mental breakdown infused at times with a teenager on their cell phones trying to ignore the entire situations and throwing in an occasional rolling of the eyes. You haven’t seen this? Well, one other example is a family of five and everyone is on some type of electronic gadget or what I like to refer to as “life sucking attachment”. It’s either cell phone, Ipad, laptops, tablets and throw in some type of gamer toy. Others could be sitting at a table and knowone is talking, most commonly everyone is looking down or away from the very people that are only two feet across from them. Why? There is nothing to say or they just don't know how to say what is in their hearts. You get my point. Whatever type of bow you want to put on it the fact that it is a heart wrenching sight cannot be covered; regardless of the reason there is a disconnect.  So to my delight when I saw this loving example of five familes, yes I counted them and by doing this held up the drive thru line, it was a sight for sore eyes.

Could this be the beginning of a new American trend? Could we actually being going back to interaction versus always in action. Are we trying to keep up with oursevles and not someone else.  Call me a optimist, but I have hope in the future because of my hope in the Father and on that afternoon so did those fathers.