Safety

We all know that one of the most needed elements in our life is safety. We do so many things just to be in a place where everything is familiar and gives us an internal peace. Even our relationship with God has an element of safety because through faith and a relationship with Him we calm our emotions and with His assurance we go day by day through all the challenges.

We often do not realize that when we were small children this need of being safe was satisfied by the presence of a father. Small children don't know anything about paying bills, buying food or other daily stuff. They see the life of their parents rather as their own. In time we grow and realize that life is not a game, that there are many things we have to take care of. But the most important is to understand that the tired face of our parents in the past wasn't complaining about us but rather an expression of love that they offered to us.

A man approaches this element of life in a different way. His internal need to protect his family pushes him, sometimes to the limits, and challenges his life on a completely different level. From my experience in the confessional room I know how very often a man can be so strong and at the same time so lost and looking for help. He wants to make his family safe but he cannot feel safe himself. Our society doesn't help much in this case.

One of the targets of communism was to break the man and make him uncertain about his own purpose. So many fathers in our time are dealing with the same problem. They suffer from loneliness, rejection, they are lost between the family and work. With this lack of safety, they are desperately looking for help even if they do not admit it. They need deep faith in God. Only He can help them to bring peace back to their heart. I always encourage wives and children to pray for their father. This prayer helps them to carry on all challenges, to save them from giving up their vocation.

We have to pray for all fathers. Only with them in our families can we be safe.