Fatherhood comes with many joys and responsibilities. And while certainly this includes providing for the basic needs of our home, it also involves teaching, empowering, and blessing all those under our influence.
To be sure, fatherhood is a choice. And we allow much harm and suffering when we simply stay on the sidelines and defer our responsibilities to others.
There’s a way life works and we have the responsibility to teach this reality to our children and all those under our care.
This might be introducing them to the basic law of the harvest. Or simply lovingly getting out of the way and allowing them to face the natural consequences of their own choices.
It’s important to teach them a few guiding principles as well to better navigate the many twists and turns of life.
And more than teaching, we also have the responsibility to empower others – to give them what it takes to accomplish the challenges before them.
We do this in part by being an example ourselves. Our very lives show them how to put into practice the things we’ve taught.
And we also provide opportunities for them to practice on their own while still under our watchful eye. This is basic driver training before just giving the keys to our teenager.
Finally, we have the responsibility to bless those we father as well – to see, take delight in, and affirm the unique ways God has crafted them.
This means we don’t see them merely as extensions of ourselves, or attempt to live vicariously through them. Rather, we fully honor and support the distinct strengths, gifts, and calling God has given each of them.
In the end, our families, communities, and the world are all much better places when we embrace the father principle in our own lives.
Accept your role as father and actively live out the father principle in your life. The world desperately needs more good fathers and you have a part to play.
Photo by Bambi Corro on Unsplash
