Following a recent entry about being a loving husband, my trail of thoughts led me to the matter of fatherhood. In a similar train of thoughts, I’m challenged by the task, should God bless my wife and I with a child.
The role of a father, esepcially in our society today, is an extremely important one. The role model of a male figure, not only in a young girl’s life, but particularly, in a young boy’s life is critical to their upbringing. I won’t begin to delve into the social conundrums that are connected, but there is more than enough reason to encourage greater promotion of fatherhood!
“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
Before God, which is my primary focus, the words given to the Israelites still ring true today. The word of God is not merely a matter of ancient religion, but a matter of life and death. We live and die by the word of God. It is something that flows through every fibre of our being, while we are sitting, walking, sleeping, eating, and so on. No matter the circumstance, God is there and, as a father, it will be my role to communicate that with my child.
Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it.
The critical action of this proverb is the training of a child. It is not a passive or inactive action. As I reflect on my own life, the model my own dad set for me, plays out in my life today. His reactions, his decisions, his life. The critical point is this: if you model it, it will follow through. If you don’t model it, it will not follow through. There are many things my dad never modelled, and it takes a great deal of effort for me to put those things into practice.
My prayer is the fathers’ of this generation will rise above the chasm in our society, not leaving another generation of fatherless children to fend for themselves in this world. May we see a generation of fathers’ who will raise a generation after the heart of God—Amen.
