This Sunday we in the United States celebrate a day, which honors our fathers, as well as those of us who are fathers ourselves. We should take this as a great honor, as it is, and should use this as a time for self-examination and a time to examine the culture in which we live. This special day on our calendars, every year points us to the importance of the job, which we perform as fathers. There are naysayers and doubters that will discount and have discounted the roll of the father in American culture. The result of this has been disastrous for the culture and the family. When the pop culture reinforced the role of the father and the importance of the family as the building block of society with such programs as father knows best and others like it the results of this were stronger family units with less divorce and more fatherly interaction. This is not a bad thing! Interaction with ones father is a crucial part of family life, and has greatly suffered since the sexual revolution of the 1960s, the results are plain and devastating to both to the family as well as to the culture. The mental and physical health of our kids also suffers when fathers are not involved, and one place that we can see this is the promiscuity and crime rates of youths of today.

The Bible, the very word of God himself, says in Ephesians 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. How can a child not be provoked to anger or wrath when a television show or sports game supersedes the importance of the children in the house, or when a child does not see their dad because they decided to fly the coupe and leave mom with all the responsibilities. Think about the implications of this, we are supposed to bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. If we are not in, the picture then how is this to be. Let us explore and reflect how that the Lord planned for us to raise our children. If you claim the name of Christian and do not take care of your family, the Bible says that you have denied the faith and are worse than an infidel is. This does not just mean that if you do not support your family, although that is part of it, this also means that if you do not teach your family and love for them the way that God loves us. With unconditional love and mercy for them, we should readily be willing to forgive and reconcile in times of strife. To act in this manner shows the love of God not just in word but also in deed. As in the story of the prodigal son, the father received his son back and rejoiced for his son's return we should also rejoice in reconciliation with our families.

When we put conditions on reconciliation, we defeat the purpose of it all together and utterly discourage our children. How can we show our children the way when we are blinded with anger and how can we expect our children to follow us in a way that if they believe that they are not important to us. The Bible says the father of the house has the responsibility for the spiritual growth of his family. Therefore, he is essentially a priest in his own house. For this reason, he should lead the flock of his family just as a Pastor leads his church, in both word, and deed leading by example. Men it is time that we accept our responsibility as priests in our own houses. This is the way that we can change the direction of the culture and the direction of our families. The Bible says that our children are a gift of God and we should treat them as such. The way that we can start is to with honor, love our spouses, and treat our children with love that is unwavering and true even when they disobey. This is not to say that with wrong actions that consequences should not result but to make sure that when we must punish that we do it out of love and, not out of hate or disgust.

Finally, we should rejoice for the gift of our families and children God has given us, and if we are not then we need to start. For some this may mean that there need to be few changes such as just keeping our promises to our children. Go to the park when you say that you will, and do what you tell them you are going to, this will show them that you truly value them and love them. Model what you say by example and never say because I said so, this only leads our children to think that we are a controllers and want to rule their lives instead of showing them love and having a legitimate reason. For some this may take a life changing commitment to Christ to turn things around. The bottom line is to love them and always let them know that you have their best at heart both by providing for their physical and spiritual needs.

William Lee

Representative