Being a “Father” is MUCH more than biological reproduction!

We will look at the last part of Faithfulness next Devo, but I just wanted to take a moment to have us meditate on being a “Father.” 

A father found a stray dog, and took it home. His three boys fell in love with it and quickly considered the dog a part of their family. The dog was pitch black, except for three long white hairs in its tail. Later the family saw an advertisement in the lost and found about a black dog with three white hairs on its tail. In the presence of his sons the father took tweezers and carefully removed the three white hairs. The real owner discovered where the dog had found a home and came to claim him. The dog showed every sign of recognition, so the man was ready to take him away. Then the father said, “Didn’t you say the dog would be known by three white hairs in its tail?” The owner looked for them, but could not find them. Dismayed he had to leave without the dog. Years later this was the father’s testimony: “That day I kept the dog, but lost my three sons!”[1]

Sadly, many have had or even become fathers like that. Let’s meditate on what it means to be a Father from our Creator’s point of view!

In our world today there are really two kinds of fathers:

·      Those that think they are!

Some men think that by just doing what is natural physically makes them a father. This is one of the enemy’s greatest deceptions! Reproduction is something any animal can do, and the male is called a “stud.” To sooth our conscience we call it “making love” and label ourselves as “fathers.” The sad part is we did just did what comes natural for animals (which we are not) and if we behave that way we will have no interest in the life we helped produce. Like the dog, many just move on to the next female in heat.

It boggles my mind the double standard the world has placed on this. If a man produces many children with many women…he is viewed as “manly.” If a woman does the same thing, she is considered loose and whorish. God’s Truth states that they are both in sin and missing the reality of what God had intended – two human beings in love committing to take vows with each other, then becoming one physically, emotionally and spiritually and in time producing and raising a family! 

I have no dislike or disdain for those that fall into this sin, I feel great remorse for them because they have taken what God intended to bring REAL joy, and instead have made it something cheap and destructive. Children without real mothers and fathers are destroyed most times by this world.   

There is another kind of father:

·      Those that prove they are!

How? By being involved in the life of the child! Making an impact for good on that life in a way that changes it forever!

A true Father impacts a life in three ways: Physically, Emotionally, and Spiritually. Physically is something from God alone; the ability to fertilize an egg; hence passing on his genetic makeup. There are many fathers that did not have that privilege with their children, but have been great fathers nonetheless. I have met many single moms that are great fathers, and my admiration cannot be expressed in words!

The big impact comes emotionally and spiritually.

 

1 Cor. 4:14-17 I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.

Paul was single but impacted many young lives! We also need to remember that we can also have a negative impact on our children.

Exodus 6:23 Aaron married Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab, the sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

Exodus 32:2 Aaron said to them, "Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me."

Leviticus 10:1-3 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective fire pans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, "It is what the Lord spoke, saying, 'By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored.'" So Aaron, therefore, kept silent.

When Aaron gave into the circumstances and pressure of the people to dishonor God in front of his children by making a golden calf, we must ask ourselves how that effected them and did it help them have a low opinion of God’s holiness in such a way that led them to be careless before the Lord in Leviticus?

Proverbs 22:6 gives us the secret!

·      Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.

How do we do that?

{1} Way of Thought

Deuteronomy 11:18-21 "You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens remain above the earth.

I use to do this all the time with my kids. It did not matter about time, and schedule, etc. If something happened that the Holy Spirit then took and enlightened me that this would impact my kids, we would stop and talk about it! 

2 Timothy 3:14-15 You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

{2} Way of Life

Children are much more interested…and impacted by what we do than what we say! Words are powerful…but only if the actions behind them back that up. This is a lifestyle that is proactive.

Titus 2:6-8 Likewise urge the young men to be sensible; in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.

Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

{3} Way of Ministry

Fathers will NEVER produce children that want to live for the Lord unless they clearly are doing it themselves!

Job 1:5 When the days of feasting had completed their cycle, Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, "Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." Thus Job did continually.

2 Timothy 2:2 The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

Consider: Have you looked at the impact of your father on you? Usually I find two things need to happen for a person to bring closure…Thankfulness and Forgiveness. My kids have expressed their thanks, I have asked forgiveness for my shortcomings. Have you thought about those that God has placed in your life that you can “father?” Lastly, have you moved beyond your relationship with God to Father…how about Abba? (Papa)

---

[1] Our Daily Bread