Honoring_a_Father.pdf

Honoring our fathers honors God who gave us our fathers and commanded us to honor them.

Here is a Christian perspective on Father’s Day: The holiday is not for being honored, but for doing the honoring. Dads, should you want your children to honor you? Yes, for their sake. And for God’s glory. A father is God’s idea, and honoring a father is also God’s idea.

Dad, you cannot be the father you want to be without becoming the son you ought to be. Honor your father. And your grandfathers.

Mere fatherhood is not always pure goodness. After all, there is a father of lies. There are bad dads. God as Father is different from our human fathers. He is good. In fact, one of the fundamental ways we can tell that our earthly fathers are failing us is when they cease to be like God. The closer we dads pattern our fatherhood after his, the more our children will gain an early understanding of him.

With Father’s Day approaching on June 19, I want to thank God publicly for my dad whom I buried 33 years ago this month. My children never met him, nor he them. He was a sinner, but God chose exactly the sinner I should have as a father. I thank God for the following lessons that came to me through my divinely appointed dad.

1. My dad taught all seven of us kids that no means no. When he says “no,” he doesn’t mean whine, fuss, or debate until he relents. No does not mean maybe or yes if a hissy fit is sufficiently thrown. Hissy fits will only serve to confirm the resolve behind the no. If we wanted to make an appeal, we had to demonstrate an obedient spirit first.
2. He taught us what I have come to call The Principle of Pre-emption. That is, more important things interrupt things of lesser importance. If joining the hockey club means missing church, you are implying something about the relative importance of each. Though it irritated me greatly at the time, he would walk in on the middle of some fun activity and say, “family Bible time.” Why couldn’t he wait until the end of the game, the program, the whatever? Because he was teaching us that family Bible time was more important than all those other things.
3. Work hard. A diligent man will stand before kings. Do you want a bicycle? Mow lawns. Babysit. Give your employer a full day’s work for a full day’s wage.
4. Laugh hard. Even in the midst of difficulty, much of life is very funny. A belly laugh—especially at your own foibles—is good for the soul, and the people around you. It doesn’t mean you should foster excessive clowning around, but it means that if you have the eye for it, humor will just show up.
5. Sing! Dad was a robust singer. Sometimes people two or three pews ahead of our family would glance back to see who it was that was reveling in that hymn. Sing in the shower. Sing as a family. Sing in the car. Sing harmony.
6. Racism is no joke. We all come from Adam. And Noah.
7. Dad openly admitted the tortured difficulty of conquering tobacco, a habit he picked up in the military during World War II. He wondered aloud why the sanctification of some individuals seems to go so smoothly and quickly, while for others it is a drawn out process of fits and starts. What helped him quit smoking was the bad example he was convinced it would be for sons.
8. Honor your mother. Dad faithfully cared for his invalid mother (who suffered a broken back from a collision with a train), and made it clear that we were never to sass our mom. Even as young boys we were taught to help mom with her coat, carry the groceries, and do her bidding. Not because she said so, but because he said so, and because God thinks it is a good arrangement.
9. Seven children can be raised on modest means.
10. Look to Jesus. Dad took us to prayer meetings. On the night of the massive heart attack that took him, he attended a prayer meeting and wrote on a card “Lord Jesus, come quickly” as a favorite verse to be shared at the meeting. Then he went home, snacked on something from the fridge, and Jesus came quickly.

Joining you in honoring God for giving us fathers,

Pastor Sam
 

Sam Crabtree is the Executive Pastor and Lead Pastor for Life Training of Bethlehem Baptist Church. He and his wife, Vicki, have two married daughters and three grandchildren.