Jesus is featured in a drawing. (Photo credit: Barney Burstein/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)
Where are the fathers? A generation ago, the Supreme Court defied the God of heaven and declared legal the murder of our babies—and our fathers were silent.
When the Ten Commandments were declared to be poison to our children’s minds, our pastors were silent. When the courts and culture continue to attack God’s model for family by redefining marriage and human sexuality, why is there such continuing silence?
At my organization, the American Pastors Network, we believe God’s judgment on our nation is in part because fathers and pastors a generation ago refused to oppose evil and actively resist tyranny. The question is, what will our pastors and we as fathers do now? As Mordecai said to Esther of old, if we are silent now, evil will prevail, and freedom will be lost.
Father’s Day is a good time to consider God’s expectation for fathers.
As a father of six and grandfather to fourteen, I’ve thought much about my role and the fact that fathers create a child’s first image of God. Men, are we demonstrating that God is faithful, loving, patient, and kind?
Is our discipline consistent and just?
Are our children learning God’s protection and provision of needs?
Does the love we show for our wife model Christ’s love for the Church?
Do we teach the fear of God in our home by living in the fear of God ourselves?
Do we focus on building character in our children to live and think like Christ so His character and nature will be seen through them?
Imagine the impact in our homes and our culture if we did.
Fathers hold the key to our families and nation. In Deuteronomy chapter 6, God told parents to teach our children five things:
- We must lead our children to faith in the LORD because He is the only God.
- We must lead our children to a fervor for the Lord by loving Him with all their heart, soul and mind.
- We must lead our children to fear the LORD because that is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom.
- We must lead our children to a familiarity of the LORD by learning of Him daily and diligently.
- And then, when God blesses—and He will—we must lead our children not to forget the LORD and what He has done.
If we as fathers would teach our children these things, our homes would be healed, families restored, and the nation united. The more fathers emulate God—the heavenly Father—the better the husband and father we will be. As our fatherhood model, God is the wise Father. He is the Great Counselor and Comforter—just, kind, merciful, and patient. He is the Instructor, Guide, Protector, and Shield. He firmly disciplines, but does so in love. He loves so much, He gave His Son—the perfect sacrifice—to save our souls. He is the humble servant, yet the greatest leader. He is the model—in every way—of what an earthly father should be.
The Hon. Sam Rohrer is president of the American Pastors Network, a national network of pastors with constitutional and biblical teachings that discusses today’s pressing issues. Rohrer was a Pennsylvania lawmaker for 18 years, hosts the daily “Stand in the Gap Today” national radio program on more than 400 stations, and hosts the “Stand in the Gap” national television program.
