A Father who had good thoughts about them and wonderful dreams for their life. He didn t quote any authorities. He just told it straight. A lot of pastors make one of two mistakes, I believe, when they preach. One is not proclaiming the Gospel.
Some pastors preach anything but good news.
To listen to them, you d think God hated people, that he could hardly wait to find and excuse to send them to hell. If you step out of line, if you don t shape yup, if you don t have everything squared away, you re in danger. They feel that the job God has given to them is to separate the sheep from the goats, to warn of the dangers all around. If you study the Gospels, you ll find something extraordinary Jesus never preaches like that to the ordinary folk. He saves all of his condemnations for the religious elite who are always trying to beat people into shape.