A Visible Link

When my son Christopher was born, I remember thinking, “How am I going to be a father?” My mother had been married and divorced many times. I never had a real father in my life, though a man named Oscar Laurie adopted me. He provided as much of a fatherly relationship as he could in the relatively short time that we spent together.

So when I became a father myself, I had to look to Scripture. And I sought out other fathers to learn from.

Fathers are a visible link between their children and the Father in Heaven. Many of the attitudes children develop toward God will be connected to the attitudes they have toward their fathers. The potential impact of a good and godly father is almost immeasurable.

But fathers, you cannot lead your children any further than you have come yourself. Pastor and author Andrew Murray wrote, “The secret of home rule is self-rule, first being ourselves what we want our children to be.”

First we must develop our own relationship with God.

Moses, speaking to the Israelites, said, “And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up” (Deuteronomy 6:5–7 NLT).

This is a picture of parents who are spending a lot of time with their children. We need to teach our children not only by what we say but by how we live.

Are you walking as closely with the Lord as you could? Is there room for a deeper commitment? Then I encourage you to make it before this day is through.

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