Dear dad. Wish you were here. Miss you. Thanks! For some of us, our fathers have moved on. Their lives on earth have finished. Memories flash periodically across our minds triggered by a sight, a sound, a smell, a song or a scene. Yet, for the fathers who still trod this sod, daily there lie before us opportunities to influence our children and their children for God and for good. Even if one’s relationship with one’s father was strained or practically non-existent, there remains for each father the privilege of breaking a destructive legacy to begin to define a new path for our sons and daughters, our grandsons and granddaughters. The pebble tossed into the pond of family life sends ripples out to the broader society.
“Dear dads”, says the Paul of the Bible, “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.” “Bring them up.” An interesting phrase that conveys the sense of rearing our children by providing for both their physical and spiritual needs. Fathers are to lead, correct, love and direct their children. Active participation in their lives. Involvement not disengagement. Children are to obey their parents with God in mind (Ephesians 6:1) and parents are to train their children with the mind of God (Ephesians 6:4).
There appears to me, as a father and now as a grandfather, that there are two parenting seasons of life. There is first the parenting stage of active fathering which lasts about twenty five years - from the birth of the children until they enter adulthood. Later, that second stage, when we become peers with our children, asking them the broader questions as they discover their own answers for their lives. For me, being a dad is one of the highest privileges I have been afforded. They belong to God (Scripture says children are a gift from God) and we have this season to love and direct them to God for their good. We are imperfect yet we may make an impressive imprint on the hearts of those closest to us. Happy Father’s Day! Thanks dad!