"Being A Father"

Children are full of questions! The problem is when they get in their teens and twenties, they have all the answers and need no further guidance. I can remember a time in my life when I knew everything but somehow I have lost the majority of it!

I remember many years ago, when one of my boys was a small little lad. He asked me the question, "What is it like to be a daddy?" I never have forgotten that question because I was really caught off guard. How can I explain to a little guy the blessings of being a father? Would they understand that in my providing for them there is this deep seated love? How could I get him to understand a father's heartache when they do wrong and the joy when they are truly repentant? How can I convey those answers?

As I look back on that question I have learned so much more than I really knew back then. While I thought providing their needs was my main concern (and it was a big part) the real concern of being a "daddy" was fostering their spiritual growth. Their mind was wrapped around playing and that was as far as their perspective was. But my mind has since shifted to thinking, "if my boys wanted to know as a child the insight of fatherhood, how does God explain anything to us?"

Reading carefully from God's word you see a heavenly Father show Himself in His Son. You see the Father/Son relationship. The things Jesus did was what His Father was doing. In all that Jesus did, in all that He spoke there was one prominent thing on His heart: the spiritual well being of His creation! That's a Father. Providing for the daily needs for mankind, that is easy but to provide their spiritual welfare is much more difficult because that will be up to the children of creation to accept or reject. Yet being a Father still pushes everything to being spiritually well for the family.

I can still hear those words asked by my son and I can tell him today that I have been where he is but he has never been where I am. I am still a father, his father and now, more than ever, my children and grandchildren need solid spiritual guidance as that will affect them in this life and the life to come. That takes a commitment as a father and mother!