note to fathers
Guys…we won’t be giving alot of attention to the whole Father’s Day theme this Sunday. Peacock will be in the house and I will be spending my time before you talking about a very important matter concerning the ECF Family. But, I was praying for our men early this morning and I felt I needed to post a letter that I wrote to my own daughters and their husbands last year. I read this letter on Father’s Day 2007. That was a long time ago, so I’m posting it again for you refresh your memory. Also, it might be good for you to go back and listen to the 6/17/07 podcast! There was some good stuff that happened that day! Enjoy your family this Sunday!!!
“It’s not that early, but I’m sitting here this morning attempting to get myself together for today’s service. I don’t do “themes” well in the pulpit. But, I do want to talk some this morning about the world’s need for fathers…to actually “be” fathers. I have real regrets about my “fathering” at times…more so when you girls were children. I see young dads do and say things sometimes that directly kick me in the gut now. It wasn’t that long ago that those things were done and said by myself! But, I think (no…I know) that grace has triumphed magnificently when I see how you’ve turned out. Truth be known, the Lord and your mother compensated and helped redeem most messes on my behalf. But now, my attention turns to the fathers who will raise my grand-children, to the stewards the churches that I’ve helped plant & grow and to respond to the life mission of raising spiritual sons and daughters (where-ever and when-ever God deems appropriate). The question that I will ask and the question I will attempt to answer is simple: What is the best work of a father? What a question huh?! I will try…maybe even grope around some, but my genuine response in part is this: The best work of a father is a sober and reverent realization that he is nothing without God. He has total awareness that he is a human being…prone to sin and failure…but he swims against that current and never succumbs to just float along. He is quick to repent of what he wounds. He is quick to embrace the strong and the weak. He serves his wife. He serves his children. In doing so, he serves the Lord. He understands and pursues how to be a good son. He assumes all of the responsibility that tracks with his authority. He doesn’t act out headship as role-play…he “is” headship. It’s in his DNA as a God-ordained code. It should be as natural to a father to lead as it is for a mother to nurture and protect her babies. Some of God’s designs are not learned, they come instinctively. A father fights the internal devils inside himself so he may fulfill “all” destiny that God has planted in him. He is never satisfied with a partial crop of spiritual fruit. He is willing to “pay the cost” for the benefit of those around him…whether anyone ever notices or not. He fulfills the greatest call on his life…to speak “destiny” and truth to the generations that will follow him. It is a natural work with prophetic and eternal implications.
How I’m doing with all of that? I don’t know? Don’t answer it for me. {smile} But, it is always in my face and it seems to swell daily with all the implications of what is important to me now. I’m grateful that my own flesh and blood “loved” me into being a father. The credit goes to you and to the Lord. It is a privilege that I do not take lightly. Love never fails! Dad xo
