Monday, June 18, 2012
Ephesians 6:4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.
THE IMPORTANCE OF FATHERS
I complained to my wife that I couldn't find any Father's Day cards that I liked. Most of them were overly sentimental and gushy, sounding too much like a son's or daughter's desperate attempts to make up for a year's (or more) inattention. They didn't do a good job of expressing the gratitude of a son for a Christian father and for the blessings that God gives children through their fathers. To find the words to express such things the best place to begin is the Bible.
Scripture gives fathers the primary responsibility for discipline in the home, but also much more than that. Fathers are to apply discipline as the spiritual leader in the home. They are to give that correction and admonition (or instruction) that is of the Lord, that is found in the Word. This includes especially instruction in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Christian father teaches right and wrong of course, but he especially teaches, by word and example, the forgiveness of God in Christ.
You fathers then should understand the importance of your place in the home and in the lives of your children. Yours is a God-given role, an essential part of God's design for the family. No matter how important the work you do outside the home, raising your children is one of the most significant things you will do with your life.
All of which should not cause fatherless children and single mothers to despair. Where there is no father, the role of father can be filled by others; the Lord provides. And finally we all have one true Father, God Himself. Jesus has made us God's own children and heirs. We have received "the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father'" (Romans 8:15). Earthly fathers may die and leave us. They may even be irresponsible and abandon us. But God is our Father forever. His blessings are ours forever.
-- Abridged from the "Lutheran Spokesman," June 1996
