Orthodoxy of Dad and Prayer

"Do as I say, not as I do."
"Figures don't lie, liars figure."
"If you are stupid enough to play in traffic, you deserve to get hit by a car."
"Those who can't hear must feel."

In an attempt not to be sacreligious, and please forgive me, a sinner, if it is, when I was growing up, sayings like these were often preached, and as I got older, I referred to them as the Gospel of Dad.  After all, the last time I remember Dad attending any church service was his mother's funeral just a few months shy of ten years before his own.  Suffice to say, Dad was not a religious man by anyone's measure.
Still,  Dad was full of short, tough one line sayings, especially like the third one listed above; to generalize them when I discuss them, I always said Dad had a bunch of "If you are stupid enough to do Action A, you deserve Consequence B" sayings.  There were: "play in traffic/get hit by a car", "smoke by a gas pump/get blown up", "play with matches/ get burned"," jump from a tree/break a leg", and those are the ones I remember.  If given time, I know I can remember more of them, but I think I made my point.  I know Dad made his.
Regardless of whether you think he was harsh (and I do) you can not deny one thing about all of them; they held a simple truth.  The first one I mentioned revealed the simplest truth of my childhood; Dad was the boss of the house.  Home wasn't a democracy.  About figures?  You couldn't fool Dad about money, and the math always trips you up if you try to hide something concerning money.  The final one up above was usually used as a warning that unless you obeyed him, you wouldn't be able to sit down for a week, if he went easy on you.  If he didn't, well, you couldn't deny being warned.
One thing about his "Those who can't hear must feel" saying, though, is that it reveals an even bigger truth that doesn't have to mean the threat of physical violence.  What do we say about those who mock our faith, who think that because they have studied the Bible, that they know more about the faith than the people who live it?  I have never been told not to read the Bible, but I have been told that it is your prayer life that is the most important aspect of your growth, even more than being able to recite the Bible from memory.
When I have a problem I need to discuss with my spirtual Father, the word pray is used more often than any other.  I do not recall being told to look at any specific book in Scripture by any priest.  Not a one of them has failed to mention prayer, though.
As I grow in the faith of Orthodox Christianity, one thing I am realizing is, that like living with Dad, prayer demands discipline.  Being someone who is comfortable lacking discipline, this poses an obstacle to me.  Unlike a monk, I can not rise out of bed and go straight to the Trisagion Prayers, though I can say the Prayer of the Publican with my first cup of coffee.  I can start my daily prayers like the Trisagion and the Troparia after, but that is not necessarily a good thing, and worse, if it is Sunday, there IS NO COFFEE before liturgy.  I thought the Paschal and Nativity fasts were tough, but Sunday mornings before Communion is the most difficult four hours of my week!  So, I leave it to your imagination, which I pray is not as vivid as mine, to see how difficult Sunday prayers before Liturgy are to me.
On the upside, I find the discipline starting to manifest itself.  Sunday mornings are not as bad as they were, say, right after my Chrismation into the Orthodox Church.  I have improved, but I certainly am not there yet.  I also have to take into account that at least I can say the Prayer of the Publican as I get out of bed.  I remember when I could barely murmur coffee when still a catechumen.
So maybe Dad was good to me in his harshness.  Since I survived him, which as a teenager I can honestly say there were times I thought I wouldn't, I have learned to look at him a bit differently now.  Even more amazing to me, though, is that I pray for him every day.  His "Those who can't hear, must feel" lecture resonates with me everytime I discuss my spiritual problems with my spirtual Father.  My spirtual Father is telling me to pray for a reason.  My spritual Father tells me to pray about my problems, and give them to God.  He tells me to pray for those who would mock me, and the faith.  He tells me to pray for my family and friends, and for those in our parish.  He tells me to pray for those who can not hear the Promise and the Power of the Gospel.
After all these years, Father knows best.