Yesterday morning I preached on what it takes to be a godly father, whether biological or a spiritual father.\u00a0 It was interesting as I talked to my wife after the service, that I mentioned a few verses in the 8:30 service, but for some reason they were left out in the 11:00 service.\u00a0 I don’t worry when things like that occur, because I simply trust God to lead me in what to be said during a sermon.\u00a0 However, there are some important points that can be gleaned from the passages.\u00a0 Therefore, I wanted to put them here.<\/p>\n
The first passage is Ephesians 6:4, “<\/b>And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”\u00a0 This verse is directed towards fathers, because we are generally the gruffer of the parents.\u00a0 We are more authoritarian in our nature.\u00a0 However, this verse equally applies to mothers are well.\u00a0 The command to “provoke not your children” refers to displaying your anger towards your child in a way that they believe it is ok to act out in anger in other situations.\u00a0 Children are parrots in many cases.\u00a0 They grow up and the emulate what they have seen.\u00a0 This verse doesn’t mean that you condone everything that they do.\u00a0 It also doesn’t mean that you do not discipline your children.\u00a0 Rather this verse tells us to not discipline in anger.\u00a0 Paul says that we (fathers specifically) should raise our children in a way that trains them in the ways of God.\u00a0 Our discipline should be modeled after the discipline of God in the life of a believer.\u00a0 When God disciplines one of His children, it is not done in anger, but it is done out of love.\u00a0 It is not meant to break us, only to break the sinful attitude or action.\u00a0 That is our model.\u00a0 The other verse that builds on this is Colossians 3:21, “<\/b>Fathers, provoke not your children to anger<\/i>, lest they be discouraged.”\u00a0 Have you ever known someone that no matter what you did, it was never good enough for them?\u00a0 You might try for a while to please them, but the majority of people get to a point in which they just throw up their hands and quit trying.\u00a0 This is a very sad thing and a very dangerous time in a child’s life if they don’t feel like they have the love and approval of their parents.\u00a0 Dads, we must be careful on how we talk and interact with our children.\u00a0 We want to make sure that they understand, even if we do not agree with the decision they made, we will always love them.<\/p>\n
So many times we as parents try to make our children perfect.\u00a0 In doing this it is easy to focus on the things that our children do wrong.\u00a0 But how many times do we notice and praise them for what they have done right?\u00a0 We spend so much time trying to “fix” our children so that people will like them and accept them that we forget the people that our children want to love them and accept them are us, their parents.\u00a0 Yes we need to discipline and correct sinful attitudes and actions in our children.\u00a0 We do so because we love them.\u00a0 But we also need to praise them for the good they do as well, lest they become discouraged.<\/p>\n
By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday morning I preached on what it takes to be a godly father, whether biological or a spiritual father.\u00a0 It was interesting as I talked to my wife after the service, that I mentioned a few verses in the 8:30 … Read More