When you're browsing your local Christian bookstore (if you're brave enough to enter in the first place...and how does a bookstore get saved, anyway?) or clicking around Amazon.com, you'll find an endless variety of books on parenting, and probably more books on being a good father than you can haul in a dump truck. It can be a little overwhelming. Admittedly, I have a few of these tomes on my bookshelf. Some I've read, some I haven't. Some were good, some weren't. Naturally, all good parenting (Godly parenting) tips come from Scripture; God's Word is replete with parenting examples, both positive and negative.
But there is one verse in Proverbs that has meant more to me than perhaps any other:
"He who fears the LORD has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge." Proverbs 14:26
Those few short words speak directly to the kind of man I ought to be, the place of priority Almighty God ought to have in my home, and the promise that accompanies such a practice. Life can get complicated and convoluted. I'm so thankful that God has provided parenting directives that involve simple actions and simple trust. As I learn to acknowledge God in my work, my words, around the supper table or wherever, my children will be living under an umbrella of God's grace, a place of refuge for them.
Along with a plea that I might learn the fear of the Lord, the best prayer I can offer for my sons is simply that God would help me to be a Father like He is: patient, wise, firm, reliable and a lover of His bride.
2 comments:
Thanks for this exhortation. I often have wondered if my children will 'catch' what God has done and is doing in me. This word from Proverbs is truly encouraging.
I take it this picture is your gang? Nothing like a big piece of machinery in the mud to get a boy's attention! ;)
Tim - Yep, that's the youngest four anyway, and the photo is a couple years old. :)
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