Our Family Needs Dad!

"Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck." (Proverbs 1:8-9 ESV)

Today I am speaking to our children and grandchildren but anyone else is welcome to follow along if you wish. Why? Well, tomorrow is Father's Day. One Sunday every year we honor Dad. We might send him a card, call him on the telephone, make a visit to him, take him out to lunch, buy him a gift, or figure out some other way to let him know that we love him and appreciate him. And we do, indeed, love and appreciate Dad!

Our family needs Dad every day, not just once a year. Therefore, we should never take him for granted. He is a gift of God to all of us -- his wife, his children, their spouses, and the grandchildren. He prays for us and he has our best interest at heart always. He loves us unconditionally and sacrificially. God has gifted him with wisdom and understanding. When we need advice, there is nobody better to ask than DAD. He is a Christian man, loves the Bible, and is very sincere in wanting to know and do the will of God. One thing we have heard from him many times is, "do the right thing BECAUSE it is the right thing!" He wants us to simply live in obedience to the Lord without expecting any recognition. 

We all know the Bible says that we are to honor our parents -- Dad and Mom. I believe that means to love them, respect them, show concern for them, and maybe it means even more than that. God's commandment to honor our parents is unconditional. Sometimes we might be tempted to dishonor them when they fail us in some way -- or when they sin. We are tempted to forget during the difficult times that are sure to come that we have the very parents that GOD wants us to have. We might wish our parents were more like someone else's. In times of stress and disappointment, we can easily forget to be thankful for them. Every one of us needs God's help to be faithful to one another in our family -- Dad, Mom, and Siblings.

Before the summer is over, Dad and I will celebrate fifty years as husband and wife. After all these years, I know him and I know his heart. That means I can tell you for sure that this is Dad's heartbeat for you: "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." (III John 1:4  ESV)

A fervent prayer of your Dad (or your grandfather) is that all of YOU will follow the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants to know that you are trusting Him as your Savior and that you are becoming the people that you were created to be. God has truly blessed our family by giving you this Dad! This Father's Day, talk to him about Jesus. He will love it!