Honor your father … — Exodus 20:12
Many of you have had fathers who were abusive, absent, unpredictable or just plain bad news. Others of you have had dads who were loving, supportive and strong.
My dad meant well, I believe, but, like me, made many mistakes. I’m sure – like me – he often wished he could push the rewind button and do it over again.
I remember the night before I left for college. My dad cried. I didn’t have any words to comfort him. I didn’t know why he was crying. But now I think it was because we were looking in two different directions. I was looking forward. He was looking back.
God gives us fathers the sacred task of preparing our children to be fathered by God. It is a job that is bigger than any of us. Try as we might, we will fall short, and our children will feel the difference between what was and what could have been.
Is fatherhood just another casualty of a fallen world, a random lottery where some of us get good fathers and some of us get bad ones? I don’t think so. I prefer to believe that God begins with your eternal place in heaven in mind. From there He works backward, putting you in the exact moment in history where He wants you, giving you the family He wants you to have. He put His own Son in an imperfect family, and He put you in one also.
After my dad died in 1999, I wrote: "One day God went shopping and He picked out a father for me. The dad I had might not have been perfect, but he was perfect for me."
[The rest tomorrow]
Be encouraged!
Dwight
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Dwight Clough is the author of four Christian books and is an active member of Lake City Church in Madison. This devotional is also available via email and you may review the archives back to 2002. To contact Dwight or Kim, use their contact form. You may also support their ministry.