Good Family Man

From FOCUS ON THE FAMILY, Today, 16-Apr-2008 edition

 

Good Family Man

By Dr James Dobson

 

Remember when a pot was something you used for cooking

and when bad really meant bad, not good?

 

It is funny how some words pass in and out of common usage.

I was just thinking the other day, for example, about the phrase

“good family man”.

 

David Blankenhorn, head of an organisation that studies

cultural values, explains that this compliment was

once bestowed as a true badge of honour.

 

Look at those three words that make up the phrase.

Good refers to widely-accepted moral values. Family speaks of

purposes larger than the self. ‘Man’ denotes a sense of masculinity.

It seems that contemporary culture no longer celebrates

a widely-shared ideal of such a man who puts his family first.

 

Where do we see it on television? There are just too few instances.

We are rather more likely to come across superstar athletes,

the ladies’ man, or the entrepreneur who sacrificed it all,

including his wife and children, to make his start-up company

a success.

 

Fortunately, it is never too late to bring this simple phrase

back into vogue.