Some of you might remember the little tribute I wrote to my dad last year for Fathers’ Day.
This year I’d like you to consider a these reflections as we celebrate this special day:
*If you were blessed with a great dad, be thankful for it! Take this opportunity to honor him and tell him how much you love him. Don’t forget God’s instruction in the Ten Commandments:
Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
-Exodus 20:12
*If you are a dad, please be a great one. Your children, especially your sons, look to you as their ultimate hero and role model. Your example is forming their ideas about God Himself. Consider Paul’s instructions to fathers:
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.
-Ephesians 6:4
*If your dad is not so great, remember that you Father in Heaven loves you dearly. He is called the “Father to the fatherless” (Psalm 68:5), and He wants you to experience His perfect love.
Final Thoughts:
I believe adoption is one of the Bible’s greatest promises. Jesus Christ gives us the opportunity to be adopted into God’s family:
But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
-John 1:12-13
So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.
-Romans 8:15-16
Do you truly understand what it means to be part of God’s family? Do you understand what it means to have a close, intimate relationship with the Heavenly Father? I hope you so. If not, please email me and I’ll be happy to explain it further.
for those of us who did not have very fond memories with our fathers, we still have to honor him. Not based on how we feel, or what they did, how they were, how they are, but simply because it is what the word says..
Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
-Exodus 20:12
So,
Whether or not he was a good provider;
Whether or not he was unreasonably strict;
Whether or not he was a control freak to some extent;
Whether or not he spent time with his children;
maybe, he was raising us up in the very way he was raised.
When memories as these haunt, thank God for our Heavenly Father-who heals and restores.
“my heart and my strength,
many times they fail
but God is the strength
of my heart and my portion forever”
It is only then we can greet Happy Father’s Day straight from the heart.