~You're not gonna win this one Meathead~
1 John 3: 1 - 2 NKJV
Back then Television was king. Growing up, my friends and I would all too often plan our schedules around the latest episodes of our favorite shows. It was indeed a rare occurance to find any of us out on the local hockey rink on a saturday morning before 9 am. See, saturday morning was reserved for cartoons. One of my favorite shows that I can remember was All In The Family. This show followed the antics of the Bunker family who lived somewhere in New York. Carroll Oconnor played the wisecracking husband and father Archie. We didn't know it at the time, but we were also introduced to yet another hollywood icon in this series. Future director Rob Reiner played the hippie son in law Micheal, affectionately known as meathead. It seemed that Archies staunch old fashioned ways would always conflict with meatheads new age hippie lifestyle. Not only that, but in the Bunker house, the father was the king of the castle. It seems that in each episode that Archie would somehow find fault with someone who was intruding on his domain. Of course, this would often bring the string of New Yorker wisecracks and insults that made Archie Bunker famous even today. For a brief period growing up, I actually felt as if this was the typical American family. Of course, coming from a single parent home I could not relate too much to that. However, I knew that my own father all too often displayed the very same gruff nature that had made Archie famous. I've found that this was the template for men in that time period. To be a man, husband or a father you had to hide your emotions and have a rough exterior. I'm not sure just who created this example, but someone definately sold us a bill of goods that is for sure.
I know it's true
Oh so true
Because I saw it on TV
~John Fogarty~
Growing up in a single parent home all too often left me looking for examples as to just what a typical family was. Although my own father was not around, I was blessed in those years with the close family friendships of a few of my friends. The funny this was, I didn't see any Archie Bunker types in my friends families. There was no king of these castles, only love and respect. I'm sure you might understand just how this would confuse me. For the first time in my life...television had lied to me! You also might ask as to why I was so interested in just what a family was. Well, I was looking for something that I had a part of. It wasn't until later in life that I grew to understand that everything did not evolve around my worldly family. Yes, I had family relationships as I did with my friends, but there was something deeper there. What really mattered was knowing just who my Father truly was. The fact that my own father was not involved with his sons lives did nothing to change the fact that I was a child of my Father in heaven. I was created in His image, and it is He who has proclaimed me to be His child {1 John 3:1}. My dad doesn't use wisecracks to humiliate me. My Father will never belittle me. No, for in my true Father there is only love for His children. Whatever example of a perfect family that I spent so many years searching for I have now found in my own heart. My Father created all that I see...and I am His son.
3Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. 4But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, b“Abba, Father!”
Galations 4: 3 - 6 NKJV
~Scott~
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