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A FAITHFUL DAD: TODAY'S UNSUNG HERO

Exclusive: Greg Laurie exhorts, 'Let your children know that you love them'

According to one study, Americans make 11.3 percent more phone calls on Mother’s Day than on any other day of the year. Moms get a lot of acknowledgment and encouragement, and so they should. They more than deserve it. But let me say that fathers deserve a little acknowledgment, too.

Here’s the thing with a guy: you may not need to compliment him all that often, but one little compliment will go a long way. Guys are not all that complex. I don’t say that in a critical way; it’s just an observation. Awhile back, someone sent me something I think supports that. It was a list of reasons men can be proud of themselves. Here a few of them:

• We can take a five-day trip with one suitcase.
• We can leave a hotel bed unmade.
• If someone forgets to invite us to something, they can still be our friend.
• Christmas shopping can be accomplished for 25 people on the day before Christmas in 45 minutes.
• If another guy shows up at a party in the same outfit, we just might become lifelong friends.

Yes, men do things that are worth laughing at, especially when we take ourselves a little too seriously. But I believe there was a time in our culture when men, especially fathers, were more respected. It was even reflected in some of the sitcoms when I was a boy, like “Father Knows Best.” 

But in sitcoms today, Dad is the brunt of the joke, the one who doesn’t seem to know anything about anything. In fact, children appear to be the all-knowing, all-wise ones. Yet there was a day when fathers were respected for their wisdom and guidance.

It is my opinion that a man who honors the vows he made to his wife and stands by his children and his grandchildren is an unsung hero in America today. 

And I believe that is especially true of a Christian husband and father who understands he is to be a spiritual leader in the home. That is becoming more of a rarity.

This is a point worth making, because we can look at most of the social ills in our culture today and link them directly to the absence of a father in the home. In the past 30 years, there has been a 550 percent increase in violent crime, a 400 percent increase in illegitimate births, a 200 percent increase in teenage pregnancy and a 300 percent increase in teenage suicide. Experts have traced all these things to the breakdown of the family and, specifically, to the absence of a father.

What we fathers need to remember is that the best thing we can spend on our children is time – and lots of it. Quality time is a myth. Kids need quantity time. They need to know their father is there. (And for that matter, they need to know their mom is there as well.)

A father should not only provide for his family physically and materially, but he should also provide for them spiritually. 

Fathers are to be spiritual leaders in the home. Ephesians 6:4 tells fathers, “Do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord” (NIV).

And why do we need to bring our children up? 

Because they have a natural tendency to go down. 

Just like you and me, they have a natural propensity for sin. We are all inclined to do the wrong thing. Therefore, as fathers, we are to bring our children up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

Proverbs 29:15 says, “A child left undisciplined disgraces its mother” (NIV). One of the reasons we have so many problems in our culture today is that children are left to themselves. They are not even being raised anymore. We put them in front of a television set and let our culture raise them. 

We let the public school raise them. 

We let their peers raise them. 

We let someone else raise them instead of providing the much-needed parental leadership that children need in their lives.

With the exception of an all too brief period in my life, I grew up without a father. God in heaven became the father I never had on earth. God can do that for you, too. In spite of having a father who perhaps wasn’t there for you, you have always had a heavenly father who loves you.

The Bible tells us that God is “a father to the fatherless” (Psalm 68:5 NIV). David wrote, “Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me” (Psalm 27:10 NIV). There are no illegitimate boys or girls in the sight of God. Every child is legitimate and loved by him. And he has a plan for every one of them.

See all 28 Greg Laurie books and movies in the WND Superstore

I remember speaking with a father who was estranged from his daughter. She was in the process of destroying her life through bad decisions, and he had not talked with her for some time. As we spoke together I said, “You know what? 

Your daughter needs to know you love her. And you need to keep the door open.” Then I told him the New Testament story of the father and the prodigal son. The son always knew, despite his actions, that his father loved him and would welcome him home. “Your child needs to know the same from you,” I told him. 

He ended up reconnecting with his daughter, and perhaps he even saved her life by doing so.

Your children need to know that you love them, even if they have messed up, even if they are not living the way you want them to live. Let your children know that you love them.

When there is a divorce, when there is a breakdown in the home, this often can be passed on to the next generation. 

The Bible speaks of the sins of the parents being visited on the children. And according to the experts, based on the way I grew up, I should have ended up divorced, and I should have ended up as an alcoholic. 

But Jesus Christ came into my life and broke that pattern. And I’m thankful to say that I have been married for 43 years now to the same woman. I have two sons, Christopher, who is in heaven, and Jonathan, as well as five grandchildren.

Even if you never had the dad you hoped for, maybe you can be the dad that someone else hoped for. I’m not a perfect father. Far from it. But I want to be the man, the husband, the father and the grandfather God wants me to be. 

So even if you have failed in some regard as a father, as a husband, as a man, it is not too late to start over again.

http://www.wnd.com/2017/06/a-faithful-dad-todays-unsung-hero/?cat_orig=faith