“And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.”

— Ephesians 6:4

Are you a father? If so, how is your relationship with your children? Are you enjoying a close, nurturing relationship or tolerating a distant, divided one?

Karl Marx once said that in order to take over any nation, one must create a breach between one generation and the next, preventing the transfer of strong values, morals, and beliefs. We saw this in our own nation as the famed “generation gap” between the youth of the sixties and the generation before them came closer to dividing fathers from sons and daughters than anything else in the history of this country. Since that time, we’ve seen the unraveling of the moral fabric of our nation, making our country vulnerable to influences of all kinds.

But we can have hope. The last verses of the Old Testament describe the greatly anticipated Day of the Lord, saying that just before Christ returns, God “will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:6). At that time, children and their fathers will bond together once again. Even now we’ve begun to see a uniting, in heart and mind, of fathers with their sons and daughters.

Are you a father? If so, what part do you play in this promised bonding? Before you know it, your children will be gone. What spiritual and emotional legacy will your children carry with them into adulthood?

I hope that on Father’s Day this year all of us who are dads will commit to being godly fathers, bringing up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We need to teach our children the doctrines of our holy religion. We need to pray with them and for them, especially in these days of moral decline. Today, pray that God will give you the strength and courage necessary to devote your life to Him and to be a godly father.

“I believe . . . that husbands hold the keys
to the preservation of the family.”
James Dobson