Times Of Swaziland: FATHER’S LOVE NECESSARY AS MOTHER’S FATHER’S LOVE NECESSARY AS MOTHER’S ================================================================================ The Editor on 15/09/2021 08:29:00 Sir, I want to salute all fathers and also men whom we look up to as fathers in society for soldiering on as fathers in spite of all the challenges. A father’s love is as necessary in society as the mother’s. A father’s love affirms and inspires us to face life with confidence. We live in a society that wants everything to come easy; we expect needs and desires to be met effortlessly and painlessly. Unfortunately we seem to have the same expectations from relationships. But we must understand that good and meaningful relationships require time, effort and commitment. If we do not invest our time and energy to build and maintain our relationships; it is just a matter of time before they die a natural death. We must understand that genuine love is sacrificial in nature. Relationships As fathers we will pay the price of maintaining our relationships with our children or wives. To do this effectively we must be aware of enemies of sacrificial love. Convenience and comfort are enemies of sacrificial love because they cause us to take things for granted. You find yourself spending quality time with your children or wife only when it is convenient for you. When we make a decision to discard comfort and convenience, selfishness will depart from our lives, and compassion will take over. Compassion is a very powerful ingredient in living a lifestyle of sacrifice. This is because sometimes we must love our children or wives when, at that particular moment or time, they are acting in unloving or unbecoming ways. Compassionate To be compassionate is not to be weak. Actually compassion is proof of being confident and strong. Another ingredient to loving sacrificially as a father is long-suffering. Long-suffering is one of the greatest expressions of sacrifice in any given relationship. To embrace long-suffering is to keep on stretching, enduring, tolerating, bearing and continuing in the face of adversity. Genuine love will always demonstrate this type of sacrificial investment in the lives of others, especially our families. A father must sacrifice for his children and family. To spend time, energy, and even your money on your family is a noble thing that will speak to your generations. When we decide to minimise our time with friends or parties and invest our time in our children or wives, that is love demonstrated. It may be difficult in the beginning because sacrificial love is always painful, just persist, it is the right thing to do and the long term rewards will be fulfilling. As a man and father do not allow personal interests to distort the value of your children and wives. Personal interests have the potential of making fathers oblivious to the needs of their families. A man must surely build the leader in him, build his career, his finances and build his character; but he should not forget to build his family. In order to be truly successful as a loving father, a man must balance his priorities, as a career man, husband, father and friend to his children. This usually requires personal sacrifice. Eswatini is watching and waiting for men and fathers who will sacrificially invest their time, money, and energy in their families as a way of demonstrating their love.