Harvest Daily - June 20, 2005

June 20

A Word to Dads

And now a word to you fathers.  Don’t make your children angry by the way you treat them.  Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction approved by the Lord.  (Ephesians 6:4)

A few years ago, someone asked the former President George Bush, “What is your greatest accomplishment in life?”  I thought that was an interesting question to ask someone like him, who has quite a long list of achievements.  After all, he was the U. S. Ambassador to China, the director of the CIA, the Vice-President for two terms under President Reagan, and then, of course, the President of the United States himself.  That is not to mention, of course, that one of his sons is the President of the United States, while another is the governor of Florida.  I would have expected him to point to the accomplishments of his children or to his own success.  Yet here was his answer: “My children still come home to see me.”  There is a man who has his priorities in order.

As a pastor, I have visited people who are coming to the end of their lives.  I have seen what really matters to them.  And as I have said before, it always comes back to faith and family.  When your life is over, it is not going to matter how many business deals you made, how many investments you have, or how many things you’ve accumulated.  When it is all said and done, it will come down to these basic values.

Tragically, so many men today are abandoning their families to chase after something they rationalize as a midlife crisis.  Men, we have to stand by the commitment we have made to our wives and children.  We cannot even for a moment consider turning our backs on them.

Copyright © 2004 by Harvest Ministries.  All rights reserved.  Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996.  Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189.  All rights reserved.