By Jason Wong
As a father I can only do my best but I always ask God for wisdom, patience, and perseverance in fathering my children because I realize what I do and how I spend my time with my children will always be remembered by them. As the saying goes, “If we want to be in their memories tomorrow, we have to be in their lives today.”
Quantity and quality
To invest in building relationship at home, time is needed. Just as money is the currency of the economy, time is the currency for relationships. In my own journey as a father, I made it a point to spend both quality and quantity time with my children: quality time comes from quantity time. I don’t manage to do this well all the time but I guess I have done enough judging from what my daughter Sarah wrote in her first Father’s Day letter to me when she was 16 years old.
“I really am an expensive kid, not in terms of money maybe but in terms of A LOT OF TIME – you’ve always been there…when I needed a friend to share things with and whine to after floorball trainings, a shoulder to cry on after really hard days, a chauffeur to keep my rides entertaining, a food delivery man to keep my tummy happy, a clown to cheer me up, a preacher to remind me to stay close to God always, and Daddy to be my pillar of strength…
Thanks for always being at my beck and call, I know I owe you a lot. Promise I’ll get that automatic wheelchair for you if you ever need one or get too lazy to walk…..”
Teaching 24/7
A lot of parents like to ask me how to teach children values. My answer is “You are teaching values all the time, even when you are not intentionally teaching them values.” This is because values are “imparted and caught” not “taught”. Children see, children do. I realize the truth of this in Paul’s words, “You yourselves are our letter…. known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ…..written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God……” 2 Corinthians 3:2-3
I didn’t know my children had been watching me until they had grown older. When Sarah was in first year university, (aged 20 ) she gave me another card for Father’s Day. She wrote:
“You always assure me that it’s okay to be me & that I’m beautiful inside and out, you teach me to spread my wings out, you help me to fly.
You also see the best in people when they’re not doing so well, like how you spotted the broken coral at the beach. No one would’ve picked up the unwanted, the lost souls, the inmates, the gays, the lesbians, the poor, the different, the troubled – you have an amazing heart daddy for God & His people……. I wanna be like that someday too.
Thank you for making me who I am today. I hope you’re proud of your art piece (me) so far. I’m not done yet though.
Happy Father’s Day daddy. Stay strong. Love you. Sarah.” END
Read more about Jason’s story in this blog:
Transformed (2016 May Issue # 17) about how Jason founded the Yellow Ribbon project for ex-prisoners.
my journey as a father (2016 June Issue # 18a)
Every child needs a dad (2016 June Issue # 18a) in this issue about how Jason founded Dads For Life in Singapore
Also Jason Wong is the speaker at the Perth Governors Prayer Breakfast 1 Sept 2017
[/ebs_column]
