Read, Bless & Prioritize

How many of you know what today is? Sometimes, we men tend forget dates, don’t we?

A husband was reading the morning newspaper as he ate breakfast. His wife walked behind him, letting her hand gently touch his shoulder, and asked him if he remembered what day it was.

Having no clue, but afraid to admit it, he said he did remember, but then acted really interested in an article in the paper.

When he got to work, he tried to remember what day it was but couldn’t recall. He kicked himself for not writing it down somewhere. So, to cover himself, thinking it might be her birthday, he called the florist and had a dozen red roses sent to his wife.

About lunchtime, he still wasn’t sure, and thinking it might their anniversary, he sent another dozen roses to her. But later in the day he was worried it might even be Mothers Day, and since he didn’t keep track of things like this, and just in case it was, he had another dozen roses sent.

When he arrived home that afternoon, she met him at the door with a big smile and said, “Honey, this is the nicest Ground Hogs Day I ever had!”

The moral to this story is that while men are not perfect, we need to be appreciated for trying so hard. A word to the men: Write down those dates that having meaning for your wives and put them in your wallet. It will save you a lot of time and money!

This is Fathers Day, and we are going to honor our men in general today and our fathers in particular.

On Mothers Day, we like to get our women a token gift that shows how much we love and admire you. And so we were trying to figure out what to get the men on Fathers Day.

Following the lead of Tim, the Tool Man, Taylor and his trusty sidekick, Al, I thought it would be great to give you a million-candle spotlight; so you could clearly see in all those hard to see places under your car’s hood.

And then I thought that a laser leveler might be nice; but Diana thought it would be a much nicer gift, and a more appreciated one to get you a book, so you could spend what little extra time you have …. reading! Can you believe that?

By the way, I hope you enjoy your books.

One main point I need to make today is that while any man can be a father, not all men can be a daddy. That is the premise of my message today; how to be the best daddy you can be.

Let’s talk about some of the things a daddy is supposed to do for his children and for his family. Let’s talk about …

1. A FATHER’S INSTRUCTION MANUAL

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a book that had all the answers to every problem? A book we could open whenever things went badly and see just how to fix them? Actually, there is such a book; it is called the Holy Bible. But to know what the answers are and how to put them into use requires something that most of us are not willing to do; study the book enough to know what it means.

PROVERBS 3:12 says the Lord disciplines those He loves. He teaches them, just as a father teaches the son he loves. By the way; we often get the words ‘discipline’ and ‘punishment’ mixed up. ‘Discipline’ means to train and teach. I think we all know what ‘punishment’ means, don’t we?

My dad always tried to teach us how to live within the guidelines of the Scripture. He was very loving but he never once hesitated when it came to punishing us, either.

My dad was full of wisdom, too. I remember once he was going to punish me by making me stay inside and not go out with the rest of the kids. I told him I did not do whatever it was and he was very quick to tell me that I had gotten away with much more than I ever got caught for, so it all evens out in the wash anyway, so be quiet and stay inside.

In PROVERBS 13:22, it says that a good man will leave an inheritance even for his children’s children. The first thing we think of when we hear the word ‘inheritance’ is money, isn’t it? But that is not the kind of inheritance the Word is speaking of here. It is talking about a spiritual inheritance.

If we raise our children in the way of the Lord, and love them enough to teach them love, respect and courtesy, it will keep going forward as an inheritance even to the 4th and 5th generations. Your great grandchildren will know how to love and respect their children because you loved and respected your children.