My father once told my mother that he wished he'd never had children. I understood that he did the best he knew how as a father, but, following the pattern of his own father and that of many other men of his era, my dad poured himself into his work and other activities, often traveling and working late. Over time, he became less and less available for family life.
As a child and young adult, my self-protective reaction was to think I didn't care about my father's inattention. As I matured, though, I longed for the qualities and privileges I thought a caring father would have brought into my life. Sometimes I even felt resentful that my father hadn't tried harder to be a good father to me and to my sisters.
One day, while praying about this, I read this verse in the Bible about Abraham. "Now the Lord had said unto Abram [Abraham], Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing" (Gen.12:1,2).
