Dads Keep Going

In the June 1oth issue of The Christian Standard, Wayne Smith wrote an article entitled, “Playing Hurt”. It really was a great article that mirrored Professional Football players with the Christian about how we get hurt through the game of life but how we must keep going.

Today, I want to use something similar with Dads. Dad’s, we too get hurt, tired, frustrated and beat down in the game of Fatherhood and just like a football player or another sport for that matter, we need to suck it up and drive on don’t we? I believe all of us, father or not, deals with a good amount of pain and trials in our lives. Just when we feel as if we are at the top of our game, something happen to us, we get hit hard on various levels. Maybe it’s finances, relationship issues, and or even health. We all experience a certain amount of pain and Dads, we have our own set of pains that come our way that we must keep in check as we strive to not only beat for our own lives but also for our children.

Before I continue with today’s message, I want to make it very clear that I am by no means an expert in parenting; in fact I find more failures than success in my own parenting. But I strongly believe that with God’s guidance I CAN BE A SUCCESS!! And this is something that needs to be shared with us all.

The major problem for us is that we have discouragement all around. So many fathers today are expected to keep going when things are tough. It’s easy to be discouraged as a father in the world we live in today isn’t it? Our world is too accepting of quitters. Divorce and fatherless children are all around us. Men sluff off their responsibilities because their selfish and have no desire to step up to the plate.

Yes, divorce is extremely high in our nation and its’ even cheaper and easier to do than getting married. We see road side signs all over Wichita that promote, cheap, fast, and easy divorces and for some, it’s a temptation to quit and run away from their responsibilities. When the going gets tough, the weak get going and gone.

I do realize that certain situations cannot be avoided and it takes two but it seems we hear more and more about men that simply pack their bags up and abandon their families, this is just the cowards way out and is good for no one.

Jesus tells us in His Scripture, Luke 9:62 “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.

Isn’t this what happens? Father’s today can’t hang tough and they start to look back at their life before children and a wife and they do whatever it takes to get their old life back.

Just like following Jesus, we made a covenant before God to be a husband and Fatherhood follows but we can’t put away our old lives. The selfish beasts that we are cries out and we are swayed to break our covenants and go back to the old life we once had. There are too many weak minded Dads in our world today that are willing to accept defeat because they just can’t keep on going.

Dads, we get stressed and we feel as if we are being pulled in ten different directions. Staying focused on one thing at a time can get difficult. Everything piles together and drives us crazy.

VIDEO: “DAD’S DREAM”

The truth is that it’s hard being a husband and even harder being a dad. We deal with doctor appointments, sports, family gatherings, recitals, band concerts, discipline issues, lack of personal time, work, sacrifices upon sacrifices and we get emotionally drained. But we can’t allow it to take us down and we need to,….

I. Learn to Keep Going Even When you’re Emotionally Drained.

A. Our emotions can do one of two things for us. One, they can keep us beat down or two, they can inspire and keep us going.

1. I think about the multitude of emotions that flooded Jesus throughout His life and about how He kept going, never giving up, never looking back, He simply kept going. He didn’t allow His emotions to keep Him from doing what He was to do.

2. Jesus knew what He was meant to do, He knew His responsibilities and He also knew where to find His strength when His emotions drained Him.

3. I think of when He prayed at Gethsemane. He left His disciples to watch over Him while He prayed.

Matthew 26: 36-45 36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”