A Father's Legacy

You teach what you know and reproduce who you are. -Dr. Jim Reeve

I still remember the day each of the girls were born. The first time I saw them. Held them. Eyes met. The first diaper change. I remember the moment when I realized that this precious gift was mine, and I was officially a daddy. Memories of our walks at the park and carrying them to bed for the last time because they were now getting older and a little heavier! Times of my little precious ones running to the door to greet me (which they still do, without the running though). Family vacations. First "Daddy and Teen Daughters Road Trip" . Oh the memories. It is days like these that makes me realize how time flies! Yet there is a challenge for us father's today. We fight a culture where fathers are looked at as clumsy, out of touch, bumbling idiots who are absent in the lives of our children. Yet there is such a great responsibility that we have as fathers. A little history tells us about the origin of Father's Day. In 1909 Sonora Smart Dodd heard a sermon on Mother's Day. Having been raised by her father, due to the death of her mother as a child, Sonora wanted to do something that shared her gratitude and appreciation. Her father's sacrifice, courage, and love was the foundation that maintained the sanity in difficult times. Since here father's birthday was in June, she chose to celebrate this special day on the 19th of June, 1910. In 1926, a national Father's Day Committee was formed, with a recognition from Joint Resolution of Congress in 1956. It was not until 1972 that President Nixon established it as a permanent national observance. All of this from a daughter who wanted to honor her father and all father's alike.
God's Word gives us a challenge, Deuteronomy 11. Deuteronomy takes a look at the last month of the Israelites 40 year journey in the desert. They are about to enter the promise land and Moses gives a charge to the people.

1 Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always. 2 Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the LORD your God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm; 3 the signs he performed and the things he did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole country; 4 what he did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots, how he overwhelmed them with the waters of the Red Sea [a] as they were pursuing you, and how the LORD brought lasting ruin on them. 5 It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the desert until you arrived at this place, 6 and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth right in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them up with their households, their tents and every living thing that belonged to them. 7 But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the LORD has done.

A new generation had grown up in the last forty years. They saw all that God had done...His provisions. His protection. His love. His deliverance. This generation had experienced the greatness and faithfulness of a living God that was not contained in the images of statues. God had shown himself to his people on Mt Horeb. The people saw God's glory come down on the Tent of Meetings as Moses entered in to talk with God. This generation experienced God in such a way that one could not deny his existence. In verses 8-15 Moses reminds the people of the importance of obedience...

13 So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul- 14 then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil. 15 I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.

He warns them what lies ahead...

16 Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. 17 Then the LORD's anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you. 18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

Yet we come to the challenge that every parent, and in this case...being the spiritual leader of the home, every father...verse 19-21.

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 door frames 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.

What a challenge we have! Our first priority of a father is to show and remind our children of God's faithfulness in our lives. That means living out our relationship with God so that they may see Him through us. Using opportunities that arise in everyday life to just say, "Look at my God!" "This is why I believe in Jesus Christ." One year we were camping in the mountains. The fire went out and it was just the stars that lit the darkness of the sky. In that moment as we gazed at the stars a lesson unfolded about God's greatness and love for us. As I watch my daughters worship God on Sunday mornings my heart is full of joy. I know there will be a day when they leave this house, but the foundation has been laid and I stand on the promise of God that my girls will serve him with all their hearts! Our second priority is to be the protector of our homes. In a culture where the family is breaking down due to the newest scandal or infidelity, we as fathers have the responsibility to protect our marriages. That protection goes a long way as our children see our example of being a husband and father. It will be those images they see that will shape their ideas of a husband. One day my eldest received a "special" Valentines card. This certain young man wanted to be more than just a friend. Now, we have trained our girls that any young man that wants to take them out must first come through daddy. When my daughter responded to the card, she told the young man, "You need to talk to my dad." Days went by and nothing. Now understand, my daughters and I are on the same campus. I see them everyday. Not once did this young man come and talk to me. My daughter's response..."If he doesn't have the guts to talk to you, then he is not worth it." As another lesson opportunity appeared about relationships my daughter gave me one of the greatest compliments I received. "Daddy I want a husband, like you." Wow! They are watching and taking notes. Our third priority is to create memories that will last a life time. I want my girls to look back in life and remember when...Remember when daddy went over seas to share Christ with others. Remember when we would go to church and see God move. Remember when we would have date nights. Remember when we wrestled together. Remember when we jumped in the pool on July 4th with our pajama's, creating a family tradition. Remember our first "D & D Road trip" to LA. Every time we pass Magic Mountain on I-5, I hear the words..."Remember dad...". They memories we create with our children are priceless. Those memories lay down the foundation of our young people. It was that which Moses was trying to get a cross to the Hebrews. Moses was saying.."TELL your children of his greatness. Protect your family from the ideas that will rob your children of God's love for them. Create memories that show God's faithfulness!" What a lesson and responsibility we have! Yet there is another lesson if we do not head to the words of Moses. In Judges 2 we read the following,

10 After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. 11 Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals. 12 They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the LORD to anger 13 because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. 14 In his anger against Israel the LORD handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. 15 Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the LORD was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.

A whole generation grew up not knowing of God's faithfulness. This "generation" were the children and grandchildren of whom Moses spoke to in Deuteronomy. "Great distress" had come on them because a previous generation was quite in sharing God's greatness with them. Fathers...rise up and be counted, for a generation awaits to hear the greatness of God and what he has done in your life!


His call to be a dad. They are His gift to you. Your purpose to be an awesome dad. Irrevocable!



Happy Father's Day!