Imperfect Fathers

1st Pet. 3:3-4, "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight."

I know what you're thinking-these verses are about women. True, but I can see how this could apply to men also. Men can be overly focused on their looks, too. Our 'coolness' should not come from our outward adornment-our hair, our clothes; all that stuff. But our coolness should come from our character-who we are in Christ. Our kids don't really care how cool we are, they care about how good of a father we are. We may not be as cool as we once were-but so what? The rewards from being a dad are better.

2) Drunken dads.

There are many ways we dads are imperfect. Probably one of the most damaging is being a dad who gets drunk or uses drugs. I've heard many painful stories from people who had to live with a father who abused alcohol and then abused them. In many cases, these fathers were good men when they weren't drinking. But when they were drunk it was a whole different story.

There are some men of the bible who were good men but they got drunk and messed up with their kids because of it. We know the story of Noah's ark. Gen. 6:5 says that mankind had become wicked and evil and God's judgment was coming upon them in the form of a flood. This flood would wipe out all of mankind except Noah and his family.

Vs. 9 says that Noah was a righteous and blameless man who walked with God. So, the whole earth was corrupt but Noah wasn't. That's impressive. Noah was faithful when God commissioned him to build a giant ark in the middle of land where there was no water around. I'm sure people laughed at him for doing this. But Noah trusted God throughout the whole project-which took many years to complete.

However, though Noah was a righteous man, that doesn't mean he was perfect. After the flood, we see Noah in not such a good light. Gen. 9:18-27, "The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the earth. Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.

Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father’s nakedness.

When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.” He also said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave.”