Fatherhood Thoughts and Meditations
One of these pictures is my father in his Navy uniform.
He never got on a ship.
He flew to San Diego.
He flew to Morocco where he occupied a listening outpost and decoded whatever was coded.
That's all I could know without him having to kill me.
He took pictures all over that country and seemed to have a great time.
But those were tough times and everyone who enlisted was in harm's way.
I don't think any sailor ever wrote as many letters home to his parents and sister as Jack Sims did.
The BIG Deal About Fatherhood
It is a BIG deal.
B - We recognize the BEST of manhood in a good father.
It is the best of manhood because it is an expression of the image of God in Him where he exercises the gifts that flow from the Fatherhood of God through his life and into the lives of his children. When a man is connected to the best God has to offer, he can give his best to others. Men were built for fatherhood and challenged in that role.
I - We celebrate INTEGRITY.
My father taught it to me and I have tried to teach it to my children. I try to pass it on to my grandsons and the young men and women I mentor. Integrity is who you are when there is no payoff for doing the right thing, when no one is looking, keeping score, or rewarding your efforts. Integrity is being fully integrated in what we profess, possess, and practice.
G - The big deal about fatherhood is that it is a GOOD thing because it is a GOD thing.
It is such a GIANT task that we need God's guidance, strength, and love to fulfill the role. It is such a GRAND thing that when your children have children, you become a GRAND-father. Our model for fatherhood is a Heavenly Father who loves us sacrificially and unconditionally and who holds us to a higher standard than we even imagine for ourselves, shaping us, encouraging us, and training us for GREATNESS.
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God, the Father, Anchors Us
"... by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf ... " - Hebrews 6:18-20 (ESV)
"In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them." - Psalm 22:4
Sacred, salvation history is an anchor that stabilizes faith by reminding us that God can and does act to deliver His people.
He, who never changes, takes a personal interest in those who trust in Him.
He is a faithful God. We can count on Him to do again what He has done before. The heritage we receive from our spiritual fathers and mothers is a legacy we must pass on to our own spiritual children.
It is an intergenerational gift that passes through our hands.
Take courage from the experience of others, but never let that experience substitute for one of your own relationship with God.
Build on their stories.
God, the Father, Sends Us
“Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” - John 20:21
Peace settles things.
It allows the right order and relationship and brings vision into focus.
It is absolute well-being and it is the gift of the Risen Christ.
His peace does more than just calm the soul, however; it enlivens the spirit and prepares us for a calling.
In our vision of the resurrected Lord, is a clear and compelling message from God: As the Father sent Jesus into the world, so we are being sent by Jesus.
He came as a servant, we have been sent to serve. He came in the power of the Holy Spirit. We go forth in that same power.
He came to do great works, we have been sent to do greater works because He indwells us.
He came to die, we die to self that we may live to Him.
This commission is neither symbolic nor optional. It is not an addition to His promise of peace, but it a result of it and reason for it.
It cannot be realized by proxy. We have been commissioned. We are sent.
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