Fathers Day - The Legacy Of Dad

In Colossians chapter 3, the Bible introduces a hierarchical model of authority in the family.

Col 3:18-20, “Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.”

So, in terms of authority, the father is deemed the head of his household, and in 1 Timothy 3:12, he is urged to manage his children and his household in a respectable manner. So the father is charged with the responsibility of looking after the best interests of his family: financially, spiritually and socially.

When a man becomes a father, he isn’t given some sort of rulebook on how to conduct himself.

No one tells a man how to manage his household. It is something he picks up from a few very important sources: First, from the way his own father treated him: how he grew up as a child and interacted with his dad, Second from what he learns from his relationship with God and by the Word of God.

I can remember the sense of strength and protection my father exuded. He was always looking after his family. And while he never had the same tenderness that mom had, he showed his love equally as powerfully to us kids. People so often have the perception that dads don’t love their kids as much as mothers, because they aren’t as emotional or endearing, but fathers have the capacity to love just as much as any other spiritual being. It’s just expressed in different ways.

Instead of a tender hug it was a strong bear hug, but it always felt good to be loved by dad. Dads are just designed by God to express their love in different ways. They express their love when they guard their family and provide good things to their wife and kids.

When I was 10 years old my dad and I made a pinewood derby car and we made it to the state competitions. He took time off to get me to that competition. That sacrifice was an expression of his fatherly love. He was there on the days he made me come along to cut and haul cords of wood.

As a child hauling a cord of wood seemed like a daunting task, but it taught me discipline and developed character in me. So good men learn how to be good dads from healthy father-son relationships.

Since almost 40% of kids grow up without dad at home, we know there has to be another source of example for the developing dad, and that’s the example we have in Jesus Christ. The best dads take their example from Jesus Christ and pass the legacy of the Lord on to their family. The legacy of Christ’s love is the greatest gift a father can give, and to be like Jesus in the way we manage our household is the greatest expression of love a dad can give to his family.

When Peter asked the Lord how they were going to pay their taxes, Jesus told him to take a coin from the fish’s mouth, this teaches His people that our Father God is a God of provision.

When He fed the multitude with a few loaves of bread and a few fish, He provided the example of a father who provides all the needs of His family, and He commands dads today to do the same.