heavenly father

Heavenly Father’s Day

July 13, 2015 0Comment

A while back, I saw a facebook post written on Father’s Day. The gentleman who wrote the post said, “I’m going out to buy my mother something for Father’s Day”. That’s comical and sad all in the same breath. It’s strange, but most people (with a few exceptions, of course) have a positive opinion of their mothers. However, the opinions of their fathers are much more diverse, and sometimes much more negative.

The negative opinions of fathers has serious consequences for churches and Christianity, in general. For instance, when I think of the term “Heavenly Father”, I immediately think of the positive attributes of my earthly father. I was blessed with a good earthly father. However, if I’d had bad earthly father, then I would probably project his negative attributes to my Heavenly Father. Unfortunately, there are people whose earthly father was so bad that they can’t possibly comprehend the greatness of their Heavenly Father. As a result, God and Christianity doesn’t have much appeal to them. I believe it is a very effective strategy of the Bad Guy to attack earthly fatherhood because it diminishes the appeal of Heavenly Fatherhood. Tony Evans, Charles Stanley, and others have also spoken about the breakdown of earthly fatherhood (and probably much more eloquently than I).

Fortunately, there are practical solutions to the problem of bad earthly fathers. The first solution is forgiveness of bad earthly fathers. Fatherhood is a hard job. Being a good father is even harder. Cut your earthly father some slack. I’m sure he made poor choices, but maybe he had a bad earthly father as well, and that bad example got passed down the hereditary line to you. The second solution is the obvious, especially if you’re a father…..become a good earthly father. Most of us already know our shortcomings. We just need to have the will and the discipline to change. If you didn’t have an example of a good earthly father, find one. Get with a pastor. He can direct you to Godly men who are also good earthly fathers.

You should also crack open your Bible because the best example of fatherhood can be found there.

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Thanks, Mom and Dad

March 31, 2014 3Comments

I recently took a class called “How to Argue so Your Spouse Will Listen”. Although revised somewhat by our local church, the material was written by Dr. Sharon Morris May. It is a superb class with solid advice. During one portion of the class, I was asked to identify emotions that I felt as a child. The purpose of the exercise was to find any insecurities that may have originated during childhood, via my parents. There was a 23 item checklist of negative emotions that included some of the following 1) not seen, 2) no one will be there for me, 3) rejected, 4) not wanted or desired, 5) controlled, etc. Other people in my group were marking almost of the these negative emotions. I could not mark any, not even one.

Now, do not get me wrong. My parents will be the first to admit it. They were not perfect. In fact, they divorced when I was 18 years old. However, I have never, in my life, held any resentment towards them. They raised me the best way that they knew how. And I will always be grateful. I love you guys very much.

My Mom was fantastic. She kept the meals cooked and the house cleaned. In fact, everyday that I came home from school, she had something ready to eat. My Dad was great too. Even though he worked all the time while I was growing up, I never held it against him (in Eastern Kentucky, if you had a job at all, you felt lucky). He HAD to work all those hours. He worked so much, he asked my uncle to take me fishing one time. We went to the Dogwood Valley Pay Lake. We had a blast. As I got older, Dad’s work schedule got a little better. From 1986 until about 2008, Dad and I hunted together every deer season. I started hunting with my son in 2009 or Dad and I would still be hunting together.

I could write for days about my parents, but I want to be sensitive to people who did not have good parents. There are plenty of bad parents out there. Actually, I think there should be an application process to have a kid…… You know, the Bible promises us a just, loving, and wonderful heavenly father. I understand that, for some people, this is a hollow promise. Maybe your father was so bad that you do not want any part of another father. If that is true, I am very sorry. I know what it is like to have a good earthly father, and I can only imagine what my heavenly father is like.

Hold onto the hope of wonderful heavenly father, it will be worth the wait. In fact, I will discuss attributes of our heavenly father in my next post.

Heavenly Father’s Day

Thanks, Mom and Dad

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