A Son Not Like His Father

[657 words] “She is just like her mother.” “He is exactly like his dad.” It is amazing how much children favor their parents, especially when they become adults. They look like their parents. They talk and walk and sit like them. They respond with the same words, gestures and facial expressions. For good or bad, the Jewish proverb “Like mother, like daughter” (Ezekiel 16:44) is probably more true than we like to admit. We clearly see how others imitate their parents but fail to realize that we do the same. The influence of both mother and father is strong—so strong, in fact, that we can be tempted to think that it predetermines a child’s destiny in this life and in the next. An old Bible story puts this in perspective. The first king of Israel was a little man in a big man’s body. Saul was rash and unreasonable. He…