Fathers have a tremendous impact on their children, for good or bad. We need God's grace to overcome the effects of a bad father and not lose the benefits of a good father.
In Keep a Quiet Heart, Elisabeth Elliot shared an excerpt from a book titled Fathers and Sons written by Phillip Howard, her grandfather:
Do you remember that encouraging word of Thomas Fuller's, a chaplain of Oliver Cromwell's time? It's a good passage for a father in all humility and gratitude to tuck away in his memory treasures:
"'Lord, I find the genealogy of my Savior strangely checkered with four remarkable changes in four immediate generations.
Rehoboam begat Abijah; that is, a bad father begat a bad son.
Abijah begat Asa; that is, a bad father begat a good son.
Asa begat Jehoshaphat; that is, a good father begat a good son.
Jehoshaphat begat Joram; that is, a good father begat a bad son.
I see, Lord, from hence that my father's piety cannot be entailed; that is bad news for me. But I see also that actual impiety is not always hereditary; that is good news for my son."
We're not doomed by a bad father. We may have to overcome what we learned from him. We may have long-lasting wounds of spirit by how he treated us. But we don't have to follow in his footsteps. When we turn from our own way in repentance and faith and follow Christ, we have a new, perfect, kind Father. The better we know Him, the more He changes us to be more like Himself. What we missed in our earthly father we can find in our heavenly one.
He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:11-12).
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God (1 John 3:1).
Similarly, we're not saved by a good father. His teaching may help us on the road of life. His example may be the highest we have to follow. His love and care may settle deep in our hearts and give us needed security and confidence. But his faith is not automatically passed down to us. We each have to choose to believe in, follow, and obey God personally. Our earthly father can't be to us everything our heavenly Father is, but he can point us to Him.
And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever (1 Chronicles 28:9).
The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him. (Exodus 15:2).
Of course, most fathers are a mixture of good and bad. They'll have some habits we want to emulate and others we want to avoid.
It's natural for children to want to forge their own paths, make their own decisions, follow their own way as they mature. We become independent of our earthly fathers. But we should become ever more dependent on our heavenly Father. He can take us farther than our earthly father can.
There's no greater example of parenthood than our heavenly Father. As we spend time with Him and behold Him, we become more like Him.
Fatherlike He tends and spares us;
Well our feeble frame He Knows.
In His hands He gently bears us,
Rescues us from all our foes.
Alleluia!
Alleluia!
Widely yet His mercy flows!
Henry Lyte, "Praise My Soul, the King of Heaven"
(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)
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