JUNE 17, 2025 ~ FROM A PASTOR'S HEART

JUNE 17 DEVOTIONAL BIBLE READING: EPHESIANS 6:1-4

Many years ago there was this commercial on television that showed a father and his son. Everything the father did the son mimicked him. At the end of the commercial the father and the son sit down by a tree and the father lights up a cigarette. The son picks up a stick and treats it like a cigarette. The message is powerful concerning the influence of the father in the life of his children. God has called fathers to be that godly influence in the life of their children. Our children learn how to deal with life by watching us. They learn honesty, integrity and fairness by watching how their dad lives his life. Our kids learn how to either treat their future mate, or be treated by their future mate, by watching how dad treats their mother. They learn about a work ethic by watching how their dad gives more than a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. It makes a huge difference how a father lives his life before his children.

Fathers are not only to live as good examples before their children, but the Lord requires that the father bring up his children in the “training and admonition of the Lord.” God has placed the father as the spiritual leader and primary teacher of the children in the household. It is true that both mother and father are to work together in this, but God places the primary responsibility on the father. It is the father who is accountable before God for how their children are raised and taught the things of the Lord. Paul’s instruction is that fathers are to be careful in not provoking their children to anger, but intentionally raise them in the ways of the Lord. We dads need to realize that we are our children’s primary example of what a father is…and the influence we have on them impacts how they will relate to their Heavenly Father.

Please share your thoughts.