Responsibility

I’ve been giving some thought to my kids lately. Only fitting I should write about these thoughts on Father’s Day. I’ve wondered for some time in what way(s) I’m damaging my children? Or, from a positive perspective, what kind of legacy am I leaving with my children…in what way will they remember me? I’m under no false pretense that I’m a perfect father and that my ways, attitudes, habits, etc. have no effect on my children. Every father, throughout the course of history has affected their children for both good and bad. My father affected me in both positive and negative ways, and his father before him.

I guess the question becomes, how can I limit the damage and increase the benefit of my time with my children? I’m under the assumption that all, maybe most is more accurate, fathers hope to grow their children up into responsible adults. That they would contribute to society in a meaningful way. That they would make a difference in the world around them. That they would create positive change. Regardless of worldview or religious bent I would like to think that all fathers hold these basic goals out in front of their children.

But it’s at this point that things change for me. You see, I approach the world around me from a Biblical worldview. I would say “Christian” worldview but the word “Christian” has lost all meaning. The word most likely doesn’t mean the same thing for you that it does for me, and therefore isn’t helpful to be used in this case. I’m a follower of Jesus. Because I follow Jesus it shapes the way I view the world around me. It shapes the way I serve and lead my wife and children. And my hope and desire is that ultimately it will impact the way my kids view me…the way they will remember me. And to the extent that I don’t follow the ways of Jesus closely, they will recognize and remember the damage that I’ve done to them.

It is to this end that I strive towards, that in me my children would see Jesus. That they would know of His love for them. That they would know that I exist as their father to point them to Him. And so here are a couple of things I try to remember as I lead my children in this way:

• that I am to love the Lord my God with all my heart, will all my soul, and with all my mind, and with all my strength
• that I am to love others as I love myself
• that I should be quick to listen
• that I should be slow to speak
• that I should be slow to become angry
• that I’m not to provoke them to anger
• and that I’m to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord

That’s a tall order…but I do not do it under my own strength. Thank God.