Be a Better Dad

10 Ways to Be a Better Dad by Pastor George Pearsons 1. Respect Your Children’s Mother The best family education a child can get is having parents who respect and support one another whether married or not. As Proverbs 31:28 says:
“Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her” (New King James Version).

2. Spend Time With Your Children
A father’s time reflects the things he treasures most. Children realize they are valuable to their father when he is as thoughtful and concerned about them as he is about his other interests. There is no greater love than a father giving of himself sacrificially to his children.

3. Communicate to Your Children on All Levels-Not Just Correction Don’t just speak to your children when they have done something wrong.
Talk to them about everything. Be interested in their views, issues and ideas. If you do this while they’re young, you’ll find dialogue won’t be so difficult when they are older.

4. Discipline and Correct With a Gentle Spirit “Fathers, do not provoke or irritate or fret your children [do not be hard on them or harass them], lest they become discouraged and sullen and morose and feel inferior and frustrated [Do not break their spirit.]” (Colossians 3:21, The Amplified Bible). When you discipline your children, be calm, yet firm. Do not discipline out of anger. Our children need loving guidance and correction. As Proverbs 3:12 says, “For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.”

5. Be a Role Model to Your Children
You are being watched and studied by your children. You have the opportunity to impart character and integrity by your actions. Sons want to be “just like their dad.” Daughters say they want to marry a man “just like their dad.” First Thessalonians 2:10 tells us, “Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe.”

6. Be a Teacher
“Fathers…rear them [tenderly] in the training and discipline and the counsel and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4, The Amplified Bible). Dad, don’t leave the teaching to mom. Be alert for everyday examples you can use to teach your children the lessons of life. A father who teaches his children why things are right and wrong, encouraging them to strive for excellence, will be rewarded as his children make good choices. (See Deuteronomy 11:18-21.)

7. Get Involved in the Lives of Your Children Read to your children. Play with them. Listen to them. Go to their ballgames, school plays, band concerts, ballet recitals stay connected to them in their world. Work with them on science projects, homework and other school activities. Eat together as a family and pray together often.

8. Show Affection
Children long for a secure place in this world. They find it in the warm embrace of a father. As a child grows, so too does his or her need for acceptance and a sense of belonging. Fill your child’s “love tank” every day with a hug, a kiss, a word of encouragement. Take every opportunity to say, “I love you.” And then demonstrate that love.

9. Give Your Approval
In Matthew 3:17, the Father said of Jesus, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Oftentimes children spend a lifetime waiting for their father’s approval. Don’t make your children beg for your approval or go without it. Make sure you acknowledge their accomplishments and let them know you are proud of them

10. Realize a Father’s Work Is Never Done Fathers, your support will always play a vital role in your child’s life no matter how old they are. Long after homework, ballgames and recitals are over, your children will still need your love, support, guidance and encouragement.

Kept

I received this devotional from Pastor Skip Heitzig this morning, and it so resonated I had to post….

One of my all-time favorite scriptures is Jude 24-25: “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.”

When it says “faultless,” don’t get that wrong. It doesn’t say you are faultless, but that He is able to present you that way, by the work of Jesus Christ. And it will be “with exceeding joy,” not with trembling. It’s not a case of “Boy, I hope I’m going to make it! I hope God doesn’t flash on some celestial screen the time I stole bubble gum from the store when I was five years old!”

Note, there’s a balance here. Verse 21 says, “Keep yourselves in the love of God” and verse 24 says, “He is able to keep you from stumbling.” You might say, “That sounds contradictory.” No, it’s not. Here’s the truth, and the balance: He is able to keep you, but you have to be willing to be kept. If you’re not willing to be kept, if you’re not willing to cooperate, you’re not going to be kept. If you want to stumble, you’ll stumble! God has given you a free will. If you want to, you can continually disobey, and fall flat on your face, and have to get picked up again, and get brushed off, and get forgiven again… Hey, that’s no way to live, and certainly no way to grow! But if you want to be kept, He’ll keep you.

2 Peter 1 says God has given us power and promises, and it says that “giving all diligence” (which means put every ounce of effort you can into it), we are to add virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love to our faith (see vv. 2-7).

That doesn’t mean that you are saved by works, but that you grow by cooperating with God. If you want to continue to grow and continue a close walk with Him, you’ve got to do something. (And it also doesn’t mean you can be “more” saved or “less” saved.)

“For if these things are yours and abound,” (literally, overflow) “you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble” (vv. 8-10).

He can keep you, but you have to want to be kept! He has given you all the power, all the promises, all the provision. You have to cooperate by diligently adding to your faith.

So “keep yourself in the love of God.” Pray in the Spirit, build yourself up in the most holy faith. Get into the word. Continue to pray, and to fellowship. And if you want to be kept, you will. He is able to keep you and to present you before God…faultless!

Benjamin Franklin

Mr President – The small progress we have made after four or five weeks close attendance and continual reasonings with each other, our different sentiments on almost every question, several of the last producing as many noes as ayes, is methinks a melancholy proof of the imperfection of the human understanding.

We indeed seem to feel our own want of political wisdom, since we have been running all about in search of it.

We have gone back to ancient history for models of government, and examined the different forms of those republics, which having been originally formed with the seeds of their own dissolution, now no longer exist; and we have viewed modern states all round Europe, but find none of their constitutions suitable to our circumstances.

In this situation of this assembly, groping as it were, in the dark, to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understandings? – In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for the divine protection! Our prayers, sir, were heard; –and they were graciously answered.

All of us, who were engaged in the struggle, must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor. To that kind Providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity.

And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? – or do we imagine we no longer need its assistance.

– I have lived sir a long time; and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men! And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probably that an empire can rise without his aid? – We have been assured, sir, in the writings, that ‘except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this; and I also believe, that without his concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel: we shall be divided by our little partial local interests, our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a by-word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing government by human wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, and conquest.

I therefore beg leave to move, that henceforth prayers, imploring the assistance of heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business; and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service