Healing Rays of Righteousness

When our children are small, they look up to us because we are taller in height than they.  But when they get older, they look up to us because we have been real, responsive, reliable, and not some phony, indifferent, shadowy phantom who has time for them only when our agenda is clear.

From us they learn what a man is, how to treat a woman, what a parent does, and what is a Christian lifestyle.  Whether we like it or not, our children see and feel God through us, and their eyes are searching for an understanding of God that they can live with and live for.  They are watching and learning to know God through our conversations and behaviors.

Throughout biblical history humankind has thought of God and His people in a number of diverse ways, as a shepherd, potter, creator, king, and a judge.  But Jesus teaches us to think of God as heavenly Father.  This is a new and important truth for us. 

Jesus teaches that as heavenly Father, God loves us with a perfect love, is wise and consistent, is a gracious provider of our needs, and gives us many good gifts.  And in the story of the prodigal son, Jesus portrays God as a suffering father who limits Himself to give us freedom even to make wrong choices and is also a father who quickly forgives when we return to him, confessing our wrong behavior.

It deeply saddens me that for many people It is difficult for them to fully trust and love God because they have been deprived of an earthly father whom they could trust and love.  For example, John Stuart Mill wrote that he could not pray the Lord’s Prayer because of the cruel, unreasonable discipline of a tyrannical father.  For him to think of God as Father, like his father, was not complimentary of God.

In contrast, Jesus gratefully reflects on His own remembrances of Joseph’s gracious generosity to his children when He said,  “So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.” (Matthew 7:11, NLT).

Our children’s eyes are watching us and learning how to make a house a home.  Children should frequently see their dad loving others and, most importantly, their mother.  Children should always feel that home is a place of consistent, abundant love, acceptance, and encouraging affirmation.  They should see their home as being a place of genuine concern for others.  This is how they best learn and experience God’s love for themselves.

An old man who had managed to get through several decades without attending a football game, at last gave in after the sustained insistence of a well-meaning nephew and went along to a game.  “Now then,” said the young nephew, “you are going to see more excitement than you have ever seen for two dollars.”  “I doubt that” the oldster replied.  “That was the price of my marriage license.”

Dad, do your children see your marriage to be that exciting and full of joyous expectancy?  Many years ago, Oscar Wilde gave this bit of wisdom, “Best way to make children good is to make them happy.”

Yes, Dad, discipline is important in a home, but it needs to be exercised in ways that mirrors and teaches the child about how God lovingly disciplines us.  Many children have a concept of God, not as a loving Father, but as an angry hard taskmaster, just waiting for them to do something wrong so that He can lower the boom of painful discipline, because this was frequently the only kind of discipline they experienced from their earthly father.  I suggest we refresh our understanding of “loving discipline” by reading God’s perspective as recorded in Hebrews 12:5-11.

Our children’s eyes are watching us and learning how to live a Christian lifestyle.  Children need to see and experience from us what it means to love another, to be forgiving, to be kind, caring, and generous toward others, that is, to be like Jesus.

Our children are watching and testing our response to questionable requests, activities, and behaviors.  They are learning from us how to react and respond in times of difficulty and crisis, times of sorrow and loss, and when threatened or treated unjustly.

Our children are watching and learning from our conversations and behaviors, answers to their questions regarding God, that is, is He really Lord, is the church important, is the Bible to be read and believed, is prayer of value, is tithing and giving to other’s need an obligation or generously done as act of serving God.

Yes, Dad, being a father is not always easy and we daily need God’s Spirit of love and wisdom.  I also know that visible, lived-out teachings are more indelible than vocal teachings.  And so, I pray for you a daily fill-up of God’s love to inform and inspire your love for spouse, children, and neighbors.

I pass on to you this nugget of encouragement from Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“Successful is the person who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much, who has gained the respect of children, who leaves the world better than they found it, who has never lacked appreciation for the earth’s beauty, who never fails to look for the best in others or give the best of themselves.”

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“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – June 22, 2022

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley