Being A Good Father

Being A Good Father | Critical Component Two: Turning Divine Moments Into Teachable Moments.

The second critical component to becoming a good father is seeing opportunity around by turning every divine moment into a teachable moment. This requires a sense of spiritual alertness for those who are Christian fathers.

Let’s reread the text from Deuteronomy.

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:4-9 ESV

Notice the active teaching. Words like “talk, sit, walk, lie, and rise.” This is taking advantage of the moments as they present themselves and teaching your children the truth throughout their life. It means noticing the downcast spirit of a child, taking a moment to invest time with them in challenging studies, seeing a particular skill and drawing it out, or making an opportunity in a tragic failure to patiently teach a profound truth of life.

As my children were growing, there is nothing more gratifying than leveraging the divine moments we had. Vacations, sporting events, victories, discouragements, challenges, prom, graduation, parties, sins, successes, failures, dreams, baptisms, and the like. Each moment for me was a time capsule of impact. Most I was present for, many I leveraged, and some I missed. But for the most part, looking back I missed a few, and to me, these are sad to reflect on.

But as we learn in the Shema, it is not one moment we are after — it is many over a lifetime. Teachable moments continue and can be redeemed if we choose to lean into by talking, sitting, walking, lying and rising with those we love. It will never be easy, but we incessantly teach in every opportunity the truth as laid out by God.

I believe fathering is something done out of spirit and character moment by moment. And yes there are some strategies deployed from time to time it is not the strategies that make a good father. It is a man who lives in character, moment by moment, and actively passing on the beliefs of the Bible as given to us by God himself.

CLOSE:

I have had numerous moments with my children that are powerful, but nothing is as rewarding to hear one of your children say, “Dad that moment when you was your finest moment as my Dad. I love you for who you are and what you did.” I think we all want to hear words like these.

But this also leads to a profound for all present today. Everyone here today wants to be loved by our father. Not just our earthly father, but our heavenly Father. We seek it, we want it, and deep inside we want to be loved by Him — unconditionally loved and accepted. And today I want you to know He does. That He loves you perfectly, in ways unique to you, and wants you to become his child. He wants you to become a son or a daughter in his family — adopted by him in love in ways you have always wanted love and acceptance. And through this identity, “son” and “daughter,” he wants to redeem your imperfections and reshape your identity around his will and divine purposes so that you can become the child He wants you to be. And if you have been longing to be a better father than you are today, then this is where it all begins. It begins with becoming His child.