The easiest solution to the request to write this article would
have been to claim I was too busy or not qualified. However, since the topic was about being a
Christian father and what it involves, it didn’t seem like a good time to form
excuses. At age 34 my role as a father
is well under control. My 13 and 10 year
olds know everything and my 5 year old is quickly learning from them. Who said being a father is tough now days?
As I grew up in DeMotte and in this church there seemed to
be no question as to how to be a good Christian father. As long as you had your family in church on
Sunday and found a way to pay for their Christian education, everything would
turn out just fine. It’s always easiest
to hope someone else is setting a good example for your children. When they turn out well we’re more than happy
to take the credit. Then again if our
children run astray we figure we’ve done our part so somebody else must have messed
up.
In all honesty, being a Christian father today is not what I
consider easy or anything to joke about.
Anyone reading this who has older kids will tell me my concerns are just
beginning. The old saying “do as I say,
not as I do” doesn’t work well with young people. We have to show them that we go to church
because we enjoy worshipping God with like-minded people and that we support
the ideals of Christian teachers, preachers and elders who God has placed in
positions of His authority over us.
Family and personal devotions sound like simple projects
until our life becomes busy, and it’s rush here- late for there. Numerous times I have disappointed myself by
my own example and hoped the kids weren’t paying attention. It is then I hope God will answer my daily
prayer request that above anything else in my life He will keep my children
safe in this life and that He help my wife and I bring them up in the fear and
respect of the Lord. I know God is
controlling my life and thank my earthly father for helping to teach me
this. I hope and pray my own children
will say the same about me someday.
~John Terborg
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