Father's Responsibility

First of all we would like to wish a belated Happy Father's to all the fathers.
I spoke Sunday night June 21st about Fathers and our responsibility to be faithful in all we do. In the message we showed a very gripping video of a little boy telling his father that he is watching him. Sometimes we as fathers neglect our responsibility of parenting and we place all the hardship on our wives, but this is not what God had designed in marriage and parenting. There is an old familiar scripture that is quoted often about parenting found in Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." The sad thing is this scripture has been mistranslated time and again, it does not mean because you train your children in the ways of the Lord they will never depart. That will be a personal decision your children and mine will make on their own. This scripture is admonishing us as parents to teach, and train them in the ways of the Lord. To plant the scriptures and teaching of Christ in their hearts. When they are old no matter which path they have taken, the word of God has been planted in their hearts and this teaching will never leave them. I remember my brother when he had departed from the Lord made mention one day of the times when he was in sin he would hear my father preaching and praying even though they may have been hundreds of miles away from each other. He said he would toss and turn at night under conviction from the teaching of his father that he had been taught years earlier.
We as fathers need to step up and be the spiritual leader of our households, to lead our family in the ways of the Lord. Most men want respect and the authority in their household, but the fact is this, respect is earned. If you lead a large number of people on your job and you fail to lead your household, what have you accomplished? If we gain the whole world and lose our own family, we have lost it all. Some men think that leading their family can only come through being hard, loud, and demanding. A lady told me recently that her father was always sturn and firm with his hand and his word was the law, but he very seldom showed a soft heart to his children and family.
We as fathers need the Lord to soften our hearts, this does not mean we become soft to sinful and wrong actions of our children. BUT how can we ask our children to follow us if we do not show love and kindness to our own family?
I am reminded of a statement that I keep on my desk from President Dwight D. Eisenhower, " you do not lead by hitting people on the head, thats assault, not leadership."
Let us as fathers of our home remember the greatest mission field we have is in our own home. May God bless you as you lead your children and family with love and compassion in the ways of the Lord.
Pastor Stuart