SPIRITUAL PARENTHOOD- WHEN THE TRAINER NEEDS TRAINING

After writing the blog on Raising a Godly Seed, I have had to face my role as a father with a new sense of responsibility.  

As I study the bible, I find that the responsibility of teaching a household to follow God, rests squarely on the shoulders of fathers. Yes, mothers may help but fathers are the ones who are charged with this responsibility. 

Its like, you are the one who was handed the keys to take care and drive the company car. If you hand over this responsibility to another person who is also a driver by giving them the keys, you will not be let off the hook if that person has an accident with the car!

To drive home my point, of fathers being the ones responsible for teaching the home, please read the scriptures below:

God speaking of Abraham says:

Gen 18:19  I have chosen him to teach his family to obey me forever and to do what is right and fair. Then I will give Abraham many descendants, just as I promised." (CEV)

God choose Abraham to do this not Sarah. .

1 Timothy 3:2-5:  An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity

Psalms 78:2-8

I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us. We will not conceal them from their children, But tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.

Jdg 6:13  And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. 

Friend I could go on and on, in showing you scripture after scripture that point to the role of a father in teaching the children. In fact, some verses raise his responsibility to commanding his children to serve the Lord. Check through the bible for yourself and see if I am right.

When Eli's Kids where misbehaving, It was their father that God rebuked and laid the blame on. We never heard about Eli's wife or God rebuking her. This tells me that if a father neglects his role as a teacher in the home a lot of harm could come to the home.

Having said all the above, I would like to tell you that even though I have found that I have a great responsibility to teach my home(not just my children but also my wife), I am overwhelmed by the size of that responsibility and how intense the bible wants us to take our teaching assignment.

Deut 6:6-7 says

"These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. "You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.

Teach when you sit down, when you walk, when you are relaxing and when you rise up. 

That's a very intense training right? and there seems to be no letting up! 

Having understood the size of the responsibility and knowing that I can't back off from my responsibility, I have come to acknowledge that I need God to help me to know how to be a father. (Cause honestly I really don't think I measure up to what the bible says as of yet)

 I hope and pray that God will bring me across the paths of men who take their teaching responsibility seriously and model their lives to honor God in their home but this is no excuse as Abraham came from an idolatrous background but yet taught his children. 

Fatherhood is not just about getting a woman pregnant, Its responsibility!

I find that I can ask help to do the right thing in life from my heavenly father and today I wish all men,who have become fathers, would raise a genuine cry from their hearts to God and say simply: 

Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness-Ps143:10

For every woman reading this, I ask that You pray for the man in you life that they would be able to carry out this responsibility well.

God bless you.

PS: For those of you who care to know more, I would recommend a set of teachings i found online by Paul Washer on Biblical Manhood and his family series. I have found that even though his teachings may seem hard, it is like the bitter pill that I have to swallow to be cured of my ignorance and to get me back to the narrow way.

Go to this website, listen and freely download as much of his teachings as you can.

http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/viewcat.php?cid=442&min=60&orderby=titleA&show=20