Originally broadcast on CHED Radio, Edmonton, Alberta Canada. Date unknown. Labeled #4

On my heart and home talks I have written a great deal about the relationship of Mother and child - very little about Father and child. If I am typical, and I think I am, the father child relationship is just as demanding as the mother child relationship. 

For example, last night I had to do a small repair job on my sons bike, and like all jobs requested of me by this young fellow, I just had to do it right. That feeling is, I think typical of Fathers. The boy expects Dad to be able to do it, no matter what it is, and for as long as you can, you try to allow him to retain the idea that Dad is superhuman, and not just a mortal like other men. 

I so often think when dealing with my sons, that I am shaping their lives, their habits and their attitudes; Their entire way of life, will be a reflection of what I am, and one off-colour word, one shabby deed, one broken promise, can destroy forever that sort of blind devotion and faith that a little boy has for his Dad... that attitude that "my Dad can do it"... “My Dad is the very best." Well, it's a heavy load to carry...sometimes, because we fathers are just ordinary people...no better, no worse than the run-of-the-mill Joe, and yet there are times when I think the good Lord steps in to give us a hand. When he steps up with a paint brush to slap a little gold paint on the old man in front of the ‘kids’, because so often the children will ask Dad to do something he knows he can't do, but he does it. In the field with the boys, Dad brings down a high flying duck with a shot he could never make again. In spite of his lack of mechanical ability, the parts of an old wagon the boys wanted fixed somehow fit together and Dad is proud and delighted that he accomplished the impossible, because the boys expected of him. 

Yes fathers, we're only human, but I feel if we take our responsibility seriously and try to be the Man our kids think we are, somebody out there will be around to give us a powerful lot of help.