"Be the husband you want your daughter to marry." It's the best piece of advice I could give in the moment. In a recent meeting with a father of one son and about to be the father of a daughter, I was asked to give one piece of advice, since I have had the privilege to raise four girls.
In light of the recent sexual harassment cases, I am convinced my advice was right on target.
We have to model what it means to be a man and woman of God. When it comes to our kids, we overestimate what we say and underestimate how we live. We need to give our kids a picture of what it looks like to express love to their future spouse.
Included in this, but not limited to it, are public displays of affection. Our children need to know what it means to touch appropriately. They also need to know what is safe and what is off-bounds.
Almost every day, since the news of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual harassments,
someone else is being revealed as a sexual offender. What is as much as concern
to me is the girls who are allowing themselves to be in a situation and not
knowing how to get out of it or talk about it. They were put in situations
where someone in authority abused their power and manipulated the situation for
their own sick pleasure.
As a father of four daughters, it breaks my heart every time I hear these
things happening, and it is becoming more and more common for abusive situations to happen
earlier and earlier in life.
We need to teach our kids that, no matter what the promotion or job security, it is wrong to be harassed in the workplace and it takes courage to get out of the situation and speak up.
-->
No comments:
Post a Comment