FATHERS
Fathers, you are the cornerstone of culture, the foundation of the family. You are providers, protectors, and servant leaders. Despite the modern push for the dissolving of the family, even more specifically, to make fathers and men irrelevant...you must hear this declared: YOU ARE IRREPLACEABLE, NECESSARY, AND DESPERATELY NEEDED.
You work so hard with a realization that the buck stops with you; in famine or feast your ingenuity will find a way to get bread on the table.
You are our first line of defense; you take hits a family cannot sustain well without you. You position yourself between harm and your family and safeguard them with all your being. You are our warrior and hero. You guard us spiritually, as you intercede on your knees; and emotionally, as you feel like the catch-all for the hardships of the entire family; and physically as you live, ever-willing and ready, to throw your body in front of a moving car to save them.
And oh! the places we could go because of your servant leadership. You don't beat your chest as the high king of the castle, but you stoop low as the man who intentionally empties himself in the service of another. And that is a choice for you. You have a mantle, position, power, and platform to crush the spirit of your children or to allow them to soar to unimaginable levels of freedom and joy as you cultivate in your small tribe all God put inside of them to be.
And yet, there is pain in the word “father” - wounds from fathers past and present, and fears for fathers yet to be, feelings of failure, inadequacy, and regret. Whether you have wounds from fathers past or pain from fathers present: absence, abuse, and maybe convalescence, know that there is for all of us, a Father of such richly benevolent intention and redemption! His love is vast; it is perfection. He will never crush us, abandon us, or abuse us. He crushed the head of our enemy so that He could forever claim us as His own. He left the 99 to find the 1. Behold! How great the Father's love for us, that we should be called children of God, and that is who we are, not in name, but in reality!
As for you fathers who feel the taunting of present and future fears, bank on this: you are being conformed to the image of the greatest Father since before time began. Say “Yes” to Him always, tie yourself to Him, walk free of condemnation, living out His declaration over your life - and you will become a most glorious display, marking the world with goodness all of your days.
We love you. Thank you for all you do. Happy Father's Day