Fathers are to Lead…Make Sure You Know Where You’re Going

God created specific roles for specific people. Fathers are to train their children in the way they are to go. Children look to their fathers for guidance, acceptance, love, discipline, boundaries, education and more. If a father fails to lead their children to God or to teach them His ways, then their chances of finding and following the truth are poor at best. God told the Jews how to raise godly children:

• Pro 22:6 Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.
  

 

• Deu 11:18-23 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. (19) Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. (20) Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, (21) so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the LORD swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth. (22) If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways and to hold fast to him— (23) then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you.
  

 

Notice how God wants fathers to take advantage of every opportunity: at home, when traveling, during times of rest, in the morning, in the evening, and as you come and go. Notice also the actions: teach, talk, sit, walk, lie down, get up, and write with your children.

 

Paul reiterates this message in Ephesians. It is the Father's responsibility to see that his children are trained and instructed in the Lord.

 

• Eph 6:4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
  

 

Challenge to fathers: How are your home devotionals (or equivalent) going? Do you have time set aside to read Scripture, Pray, sing, and talk with your child? If not, start today (and continue)! You are leading by example: make sure your example is a good one.