How's it going, Pops?

My blog posting today is going to be a short one because there is a dearth of information on the subject. The only thing is abundance are the questions.

• How does a father act to protect his children?
     Contrary to the political correctness of the era, men are different than women and their Creator has assigned them certain roles. Perhaps foremost among the God-ordained duties of fatherhood is the task of protecting a child's heart.
   So, what, exactly, did KatieLyn's father do to protect her heart and prevent the crisis caused by her running off in the middle of the night?  Nothing that I can see.

• How does a husband act to protect his wife?
    What did Gwen's husband do to protect her from a replay of the Adam and Eve fiasco when Adam left Eve to deal with the serpent all by herself? Nothing comes to mind. 
     
• How does the male head of household act to protect its members from each other?  
   What did he do to stop his wife from picking fights with his daughter? Nothing that I have seen.

• How has KatieLyn's father taught her to hear God's voice?
     IDK. 

• How has KatieLyn's father empowered her to grow into a strong, confident woman of faith? What is he doing to prepare KatieLyn for the realities of adult life in a fallen world?
     This one does appear to have an answer—he delegated that responsibility to his wife. Or maybe Gwen just took it over on her own, who knows?

KatieLyn never spoke much about how her father taught her the skills and attitudes that she needed to succeed as a wife. We know that scripture commands a man to train up his children in the way that they should go, but somehow I doubt that running home in the middle of the night when no one is chasing would count as proof of dad's effective training.

The Lesson
   I don't know KatieLyn's father very well. I have never been in his home. But from my little perch in this world, it looks like he is trying to win Colossians 3:21 on a technicality. Colossians 3:21 says:

  Fathers! vex not your children, lest they be discouraged.

To vex means to bring distress or suffering to; to plague or afflict; to cause perplexity in the soul.  Or in modern language, "Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so that they will not lose heart."

Okay, so technically, KatieLyn's dad didn't do this directly. But he did allow his wife to infuriate his daughter, he permitted Gwen to badger his daughter to a degree that it caused KatieLyn to lose her first love. That is pretty serious stuff. Usually we think of fathers having to protect their daughters from the boyfriends, but in this case, the father failed to protect his daughter from the destruction being sown by her mother, his wife. He allowed Katielyn to become so discouraged and so disheartening that she lost her faith in knowing God's will. 

Whether he knows this or not, I have no clue, but he has put his daughter in the untenable position of either having to get Mommy-approval before pursuing relationships or rebelling against her mother. He has allowed the mother/daughter codependency to flourish right under his nose. So, how's it going, Pops? The answer to that has been swept under the rug. And that is very poor housekeeping.