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Dripping Springs Weekly Bulletins
"You're Gonna Be Just Like Your Daddy"
A picture of me taken recently reminded my family just how much I look like my father. I consider that a compliment, but it also brought back memories of him and how he still influences my life. Sure enough, the little boy trying to walk in his Dad’s boots may make some of us fathers a bit nervous. Yes, parents have an enormous impact on the direction, morals, purposes and attitudes toward life of their children.
He has been gone almost twenty-five years, but I still use some of the same figures of speech he used and respond to some situations as he did.
I may never be the man he was, but I had a good teacher. I will have no excuses if I fall short. While fathers seldom get the “ink” mothers get, still they are responsible for the teaching, loving, chastening and encouraging so desperately needed by every child in every family.
The numbers indicate that over 50% of high school age children in our nation live in a home in which the father is absent. Divorce, death, jail, military service, abandonment – all enter into the picture. The result is a family in which a father’s influence is neither known nor available.
Even more tragic is the home in which the father is in the home but has little interest in the growth and character of his children. Such is the very opposite of what God desires and demands of fathers.
- "And he walked in all the ways of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of the LORD.” 1 Kings 22:43.
- “Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Ephesians 6:4.
- “Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged,” Colossians 3:21.
- “I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.” 1 Samuel 3:13.
- “Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.” Genesis 18:18-19.
Old and New Testaments alike speak of the influence fathers had and must continue to have on their offspring. We who are now grown men probably once protested greatly when someone saw our fathers in us. Independence and individualism are said to be traits of manhood, and some do not want to be like their fathers. But now we can see what we did not want to see in years past, and we know that our influence as fathers will last into the next and other future generations.
We also acknowledge something else that would have been denied so long ago – our need for God’s help in being a good father. We know our weaknesses, our lack of wisdom at times as we seek to rear our children in the “admonition of the Lord.”
Our children need a father who can and will provide the “necessities of life,” but they need even more a father who can and will provide a stable home, a godly home, a home in which God’s Word is studied, honored and obeyed.
Our sons don’t need a car or a truck nearly as much as they need a father who loves them and leads them in the paths of righteousness.
Our daughters don’t need the latest fashions or an i-Pod nearly as much as they need a father who loves them and their mother and serves righteously as head of the family.
Mothers and wives don’t need a big kitchen or new furniture nearly as much as they need a husband who takes the lead in the family’s spiritual life. Don’t forget how God looked upon Abraham in Genesis 18:19. “…he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD.”
Yes, that’s what our homes need most of all. When I look back at my youth I remember almost nothing about the family car, the curtains on the windows, the food we ate or the social status we enjoyed. I do remember a mother and a father who took an interest in my brother and me, read the Bible to us, made sure we had what we needed and expressed their love for us. I could not have hoped for more.
If you have parents like that, don’t wait another minute to tell them you love them and prove it by your attitude and your actions.
If you have children, make sure they know of your love for them. Demonstrate that love by providing discipline, encouragement and opportunity to learn and grow.
No greater compliment could be given me than for someone to say, “You’re just like your Daddy.”
Carl B. Garner
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“Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.”
“Let the child’s first lesson be obedience, and the second will be what thou wilt.”
“Children are a poor man’s riches.”
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Children:Will Yours Go To Heaven?
Elders all over the nation are concerned about the dropout rate of our young people. It is a tragic thing to see these precious boys and girls who are so thrilled with Bible study as little people, grow cold and uninterested in the Lord’s work as they grow older. Several congregations have made in-depth studies of all the factors available concerning all their young people, with an eye to learning what might be done to help solve this problem. What do we need? More youth programs? More youth rallies? A special teacher?
From the material that has been published on these studies, it seems to me that one great central truth has begun to emerge. Faithfulness of the young person to Jesus doesn’t have anything to do with special programs or teachers. It is not dependent on whether they are members of a large congregation or a small one. The single most important value is their own immediate family.
One congregation found that where both parents were faithful to the Lord. 93% of the kids remained faithful. On the other hand, if only one of the parents was faithful, that figure dropped to 73%. Where the parents were only what we call reasonably active in the Lord’s work, only 53% of the young people maintained their faith.
Now, here comes the shocker. In those cases where both parents attended only infrequently, the percentage of the children who remained faithful to the Lord dropped to 6%.
Do you want your children to go to heaven? Make sure you are leading them by your faithful example.
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