Date: 18 Jun 2018 Comments: 1

On Father’s Day, it is a day that brings mixed thoughts to people. For some, they have memories of an angry or distant father who could barely support the family. Some remember a father that could support their family but destroyed them mentally (and sometimes physically or emotionally). The stories about fathers who are good to their children are the ones that so few people talk about. In fact, as I listened to Air 1 while I got ready for church, the “Verse of the Day” came on and talked about how good our Heavenly Father is but then the speaker said something to the effect of: “So, even if you have a bad relationship with your father, like many do, your Heavenly Father is the best one of all.” This came, to me, as a sharp contrast when I remember the message about Mother’s Day only a month prior. It was about how mothers will always care for you and take care of you and that God appointed mothers to carry their children through life. The dichotomy of this spellbound me. How on earth can a father in this modern era even stand a chance of being a “good father” when even Christian media insults them on the very day they were supposed to be remembered? I have made my mistakes as a dad and I am not ashamed to admit it. I’m not proud of it, but at least I’m honest. Yet in all of these things, I still strive to do my best as a dad for my children and I hope I do a better job most of the time than the media leads on. Yet even among these things, I still find that the best way to accomplish that feat is to tap into the power of God from above. What I think happens to most men who are deemed ‘bad fathers’ is that they don’t draw from Heaven enough. If you ever need a reminder of just how powerful our God is, my reading for Father’s Day depicted it well in Nehemiah and in Acts. “You alone are the Lord. You made the skies and the heavens and all the stars. You made the earth and the seas and everything in them. You preserve them all, and the angels of Heaven worship you.” (Nehemiah 9:6, NLT). That description alone, though it only describes one aspect  of God still shows you how perfect his order is in this world and has power beyond all measure. In the New Testament, when Peter had just healed the beggar at the Beautiful Gate, he took the opportunity to speak to the amazed onlookers. “Peter saw this opportunity and addressed the crowed. ‘People of Israel,’ he said, ‘what is so surprising about this? And why stare at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power and godliness? For it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – the God of all our ancestors – who has brought glory to his servant Jesus by doing this. This is the same Jesus whom you handed over and rejected before Pilate, despite Pilate’s decision to release him.” (Acts 3:12-13, NLT). The same God who Nehemiah recounts that literally keeps the entire world in motion and who is worshiped by the angels themselves, is the same God who Peter called upon to heal the beggar. If fathers prayed more and fought their battles on their knees, I think we’d see far less of these ‘bad father’ media depictions. So, I continue to strive to be a praying father and I hope that other fathers in this world do the same. Maybe someday we can change the negative media appearance of fathers into one worthy of the same positive messages as mothers.