Growing up in the sixties, three shows about families set the tone. Each
one different, each one contemporary, and each one more popular today in
reruns. Everyone wanted a mother like June Cleaver except for me. She nagged,
her boys would have been sissies if Ward wasn’t there, she pouted to get her
way. Think about it, I’m right. I was too young for Father Knows Best, but I
reruns see Margaret way cool. Helping Bud with his hot rod, learning to ride a
Cushman, June thought motorcyclists beneath her, while Margaret was doing the
painting, dress making, and community work. Stuff my mother would have done.
But the one mother figure that stand out for not being a mother, was actually
two men, Bub and Uncle Charley on My Three Sons. Steve was a widower, raising
three sons, and their maternal grandfather Bub helped raise them. Later a great
Uncle Charley took over, and even without a female in the home, until Katie
married Rob and Steve remarried the last three seasons, this was the home we
wanted to live in. Boy stuff to manhood stuff went on, hot rods, dating,
graduation, college, and finally kids and grandkids, this was real life, maybe a
stretch at times, but maybe this was why the show lasted so long. Steve knew
best, and his fatherly advice passed on to his sons I still learn from. The
absence of a mother is visited a few times, when Bub subs for Chip’s lack of a
mother and school, and Uncle Charley legally becomes a mother figure so they can
adopt Ernie. No crying or whimping out, they were also the only family with a
dog, Tramp, who was on for all the 12 seasons. Later The Partridge Family would
be a single parent household, but Steve was first, and raised kids he should be
proud of, while doing things we wish our dads had.
Steve taught his sons life could be hard, but to face the test, no matter
what the opposition would say. One episode where Steve will not help Ernie with
a school science project, Ernie is miffed, thinking his dad doesn’t love him,
but when all the other dads really do their son’s projects, Ernie takes pride in
learning something about his father’s love and gets the biggest prize of all.
How many times did Ward bail out the Beaver? Showing a father’s love comes in
many flavors. Ward was always there for his boys, Jim for his kids, and Steve
for his sons. All with a father’s love, one missing from TV families today,
reflecting and influencing real life. The Douglas family faced the challenges,
today they go on welfare. You decide, who got the better parents?
The nature of sin is self occupation, it is all about me. Then me, and
then me again. TV shows us how to look out for ourselves, it’s my rights, my
desires, and my way. Or I cry and kick and scream...with an added sound track,
as if this is funny. What’s in it for me? And we wonder why society is falling
apart from within....the nature of sin is to play God or be God in our own
little world, saved or not, it is. And while it can be pleasurable, at least
for awhile, we forget that sin nature is from the devil, and not of God. For
from the beginning, it was the devil that sinned. Somehow sin is fun, or we
wouldn’t do it. But it has a price, which we cannot afford when payment is
due.
Many today live independent of God, doing their own thing, claiming full
responsibility for any success, but I have found in Christ I can live
independent on God. I can be who he wants me to be, and still have the freedom
only found in the spirit. Living independent from Jesus is self delusion, it
comes down to believing a lie, it is more than knowing conceit is bad and
humility is good. Freedom is knowing Jesus, and becoming all he has for you on
this earth. Remember God is also an earthly father, not just a heavenly one.
When we worship ourselves above all else, we celebrate the national religion of
hell, selfishness. Who you look to in times of trouble tell us who you really
are, and how weak we really are and how much we need God. We need an earthly
God to be there for us, and when he isn’t, our heavenly father always is.
Readily helping us, but in ways that may seem harsh for the moment, but in then
end bring righteousness. I see a lot of God’s wisdom in Steve Douglas raising
his sons, teaching them to stand on their own, yet dependent on the father. To
unite in family, rather than divide, and to face adversity, playing the game
fair, and not winning every time, but growing from the losses. Planning for the
future, but dealing with today. We need more fathers like Steve, and Jim, and
Ward. Men who desired and knew the value of being called father. Do we know
the value of calling God our heavenly father? Of Jesus being our savior, and
the spirit being our comforter? It’s all right there, but first we need to deny
our sin nature and repent. When we wrestle with sin, do we really know that
there are heavenly powers, not of God influencing us? That our selfishness will
ultimately lead to death? Or do you still think you can do it all alone?
Jesus is calling to us today to become part of the family of God, to get
all the inheritance of God, and be all we can be. He doesn’t promise success in
all things, nor an easy road, he promises grace,which is the best. And peace
and comfort along the way, if we don’t try to do it alone, maybe the peace you
are missing is because you are still trying to do it yourself. Life is designed
so you cannot...
Different family dynamics in each show, yet each was a family. It was
about the family, and you being a part of it, with a part to play. Get over
yourself, see how God has a plan for you in his family, our family. How he will
direct but not force his will upon you, and you will escape your sin nature.
When your world is all about Jesus, sin finds no place and looks for another
home, another TV series. You see Father really does know best, and it takes a
family to be a father. Let God be your father today, repent and be welcomed
into the family. If we had left things to Beaver, you can only imagine how life
would be. We are all children of someone, I like being a child of God best.
And if my sons like to ride motorcycles, that is OK too. June was a snob, if
only Ward had better choices in women....he did in real life, he chose Jesus,
and was a Methodist minister. You see, God the father really does know
best!
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com