Tag: Fatherhood

A Special Birthday Reflection

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“Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction, and don’t reject your mother’s teaching, for they will be a garland of favor on your head and pendants around your neck.” (CSB Proverbs 1:8-9 – Read the chapter)

Some of the best movies are the ones that create a potent sense of nostalgia around an idyllic childhood. The Sandlot is a classic in this genre. It is ostensibly a movie about baseball (and one of the greatest ever released), but it’s really a movie about nostalgia. It’s about making the viewer feel a certain way. Our culture is enamored with the idea that childhood should unfold in a certain way. It should be carefree and safe and familiar and encouraging and challenging and so on and so forth. It should happen in the context of a family with a mom and dad and a sibling or two. It should be happy and fun. On that score, my childhood was about as idyllic as they come. One of the two main reasons for that turns 70 today. This is for him.

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Morning Musing: Hebrews 12:9-10

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“Furthermore, we had human fathers discipline us, and we respected them. Shouldn’t we submit even more to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them, but he does it for our benefit, so that we can share his holiness.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

What is wrong with us? That’s a nice, big question to start off the day. It’s also a question with a list of potential answers that would need a whole series of books to answer in a manner that is even remotely adequate. Still, there are perhaps a few things we could point to as particularly acute problems whose effects can be traced to a fairly wide swath of our culture’s current list of troubles. One of these is a lack of committed, involved fathers. Fatherlessness is a terrible blight on our society. It lies at the root of just nearly every social malady sociologists measure. With all of the language and illustrations of God using fatherhood as their starting point we find in the Scriptures, our culture’s lack of fathers also makes passages like this one harder for many folks to understand and appreciate than perhaps they should be. Let’s dig in a bit this morning and see if we can make some sense of what the author of Hebrews is saying here.

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Morning Musings: Ephesians 6:4

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“Father, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

As a father of three boys, this verse has always struck me with a particularly strong force.  The first part of this little section important, to be sure.  My children should obey me because that is right and life will go better for them if they do.  But, am I being the kind of father who invites obedience? Read the rest…

Morning Musings: 1 Chronicles 28:9-10

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“And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought.  If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.  Be careful now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be strong and do it.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

One of the single greatest duties a father has is to charge his son or daughter to grow to serve and love the Lord.  Everything else we do for them and teach them must necessarily come secondary to that.  But, this is a charge that will only be heard when they see us living it out in our own lives.  If we do not demonstrate what it looks like to be faithful to the Lord in our own lives, they will not likely pursue it themselves.  Through our words and deeds, our actions and attitudes, we must call them to the life of Christ.  We must teach them the faith and how to defend it from those who would call them away from it.  We must show them how to give of themselves for the benefit of others and why that is so important.  We must implant deep in their hearts and minds an unshakable love of the church.  We must make sure they know the love of Jesus because of the way we love them.  Most of all, we must teach them to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.  If we can do all of these things we will be counted successful.  We will be counted successful and our legacy will be one worth celebrating.