Fatherhood and family is a God thing; it reflects the image of God and it was delightfully designed by God, as an expression of His love and glory. Fathers have the awesome privilege and responsibility of reflecting God to their children. They are to reflect God to their children by being loving, gracious and kind. They are to reflect God to their children by being a provider and protector. They are to reflect God to their children by being humble, gentle and wise. They are to reflect God to their children by being righteous, just and blameless.   Now those are some great shoes to fill and great steps to walk in walk in! To be an imitator of God is no easy task. We all fall short of the glory of God. We all fall short of reflecting God’s glorious character and image well.  And most Father’s that I know are aware that of the fact that they don’t measure up to reflecting God perfectly or properly to their children.  Even the best of earthly fathers end up disappointing and wounding their children at some point because dads are sinners too.

Many children have been wounded by their earthly father either by something he did or didn’t do. Those wounds are often carried from childhood into adulthood and  many dads find themselves  wounding their own children in similar ways that they were wounded by their own father.

Fatherhood has a way of magnifying just how great of sinners dads are and magnifying how far short they fall of reflecting God’s sacrificial love.  For many dads this leads them to great despair and defeat. Yet for others it leads them to diligently seek their Heavenly Father and intimately know His ways that they may be transformed from glory to glory. These dads seek to be changed by beholding the glory of the ONLY PERFECT FATHER and as they behold His glorious character they become like Him (2 Corinthians 3:18).

 Dads, if you want to be a better father then you need to get to know your Heavenly Father better. God fathers his children perfectly. Read and meditate on the Scripture which gives us beautiful and glorious descriptions of how God has fathered His people well throughout history.  Ask for the Spirit of God to lead you into intimacy with your Heavenly Father. For the Scripture says “you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”  The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (Romans 8:15-16 ESV). The Holy Spirit is the one who pours out into our hearts the love of our Heavenly Father (Romans 5:5). And that perfect love from our Perfect Heavenly Father brings healing to our broken and wounded hearts, so that we are made whole and are able to love others, especially our children, with the same love that we have received. Child of God you are loved and accepted by your Heavenly Father and you can confidently approach Him knowing that He will give you what you need (Hebrews 4:16). We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).

If you’re not a Christian and you don’t know God and his great love for you then consider reading some of these passages in the Bible; John 3:16-21, Romans 5:1-8, Romans 10:9-10, 1 John 4:7-21.