Do you mind telling me about you father? Did you grow to know him as a loving man? If you are the judge, does your father deserve to go to heaven? What us your childhood experience with your father? You may sat I am lucky because I remember my father buying me a box of chocolate as a child, well, I remember hum beating me with a local belt. I have memories. You do too. Some painful. Some pleasurable.
Although, God remains the first father of all times and form him we get our identity, self worth and security, every human father on Earth represent God who is the ultimate father. A good father is the one that represents God in the best way, especially in this three areas:
- The father as a priest
- The father as a prophet
- The father as a King
AS A PRIEST.
As a father or to be father, your basic responsibility as a priest, is to represent your family in intercession and prayer. If you are to succeed as a prophet and a king, you need to succeed first as a priest over your home. Take Job as a beautiful example, the Bible records that at the end of every week, Job rises up early to offer sacrifices on behalf of all his sons and making intercession for them. Your first responsibility as a priest is to ensure God’s provision of salvation is effective in your home. You can not delegate this responsibility of a priest to someone else in the family. This is the first secret of fatherhood and the gateway to knowing the next mystery.
AS A PROPHET.
Your second most important responsibility as a father is to stand as a prophet over your family. The first impression your child will have about God begins with your attitude towards your child. Your first attitude should be a prophet of good and not evil towards your children. The Bible establishes the fact you should not provoke your children to anger. Your children’s spiritual education and instructions depend solely on your responsibility as a prophet in that family. Are you thinking of delegating this sensitive responsibility to the Sunday School teacher or Youth leader? Hear this! It is your role and you must man up to your task. As a father, you can maintain discipline and at the same time avoid rebelliousness and discouragement from your children. Avoid communicate with your children in a formal, still, religious setting, else, they will resent both the religion and the instruction. Dear father, don’t do all the talking, let your children talk to you too. You know what? Don’t just be a church, church, church, daddy, on behalf of all the children, we will like to remember the wonderful and informal times of just being together..
AS A KING.
Your last responsibility as a father is your responsibility as a King over your family, on behalf of God, your third responsibility is to govern your household. Look at it this way. In 1st Timothy 3:4-5, Paul discusses in detail the qualifications a man must posses to hold the position of an elder, overseer or a bishop. The most important qualification is the condition of that man’s home. As a king, you should be able to rule, lead, stand as the head, protect and control your household. The king is at the forefront. You set an example and stand a man between your family and all the dangers and pressures of life, if you don’t succeed at home, which is a mini church, how do you expect to succeed as a bishop over a large church, in this case, let us consider Abraham as a case study, let us look at Genesis 18 in a very critical way. God confirms in the Bible that he knows of a surety that Abraham will command his children and his household after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord, but, what happens when fathers fail, if you fail in your role as a father, you may not enjoy your children, God gave us children as blessings, when we refuse to train or exercise authority over them in the way of the Lord, the children become a curse. In the last two decades, we see a drastic decadence in the morals of our children, the mother elicit an influence over the children, but the father as a primary role to play in the course of the children, we hear about a lot of juvenile delinquents, we won’t curb the high rate of juvenile delinquencies until we realize the primary responsibility for that state of affairs in modern society rest at the doors of fathers
If you had a bad father, I mean a cruel father, one who doesn’t care about you or anything that concerns you, I put it to you, you have read this blog post, you are either a father, a to-be father or you know one or more fathers, I ask you, will the future children be glad to know you as their father?