Father Figure

Today while I was at a restaurant with my family, I notice a man sitting in a booth with two young girls and a baby boy. I knew that this was a father with his three young children. My first thought was “aw they're so cute", but next that came to mind was “where is their mother?". I immediately then realize this was a father, that probably only gets to see his kids once or twice a week when he takes them out to dinner because he and their mother couldn't make things work. It honestly broke my heart. A father who truly cared and loved his kids, was on a two hour restriction that the court felt was "Fair enough". When was it ever fair for a father to only see his kids once or twice a week? Now don't get me wrong, I don't know this man or really anything about him; but I did see the way he looked at his kids. The joy in his eyes when he looked at them; the smile that reached ear to ear when his daughter called his name. It was beautiful, without him even realizing it.
The reason I wanted to talk about this moment was because the whole time I watched this father with his kids, I had a flashback. I saw myself with my siblings and my father, at our weekly dinner night. See when I was five my parents got a divorced, it was devastating! I couldn't grasp the concept, why wasn't my father walking in the front door anymore and giving a bear hug to his little girl? I'd cry when my father would drop us back off at home after his "two hours" were over, I blamed my mother for the longest time.I regret hating my mother so much as a kid for something she couldn't control.
My father was always a great dad to us, even if we may not be his “Pride and Joys" anymore. I know he still loves us because when I see him, I can tell he still has the same joy in his eyes and the smile from ear to ear.
After dinner I prayed for those three kids. I prayed asking god to not let them go through what we had to go though and that their father never loses interest in them.