I am blessed to have had a strong, funny, Christ-focused father in my life for 27 years and each year on Father’s Day I celebrate his life. This is the second year I’ve celebrated him here on earth while he parties in heaven, and I miss him.
To honor his life and legacy, I started jotting down some life lessons that he taught me – some directly and some simply through the way he lived. At a Bible study a few weeks ago, we had a conversation and I realized afterwards that I had started at least 5 sentences with “When I was growing up, my dad taught us…” It just drove home the fact that we were blessed with parents committed to raising gospel-centered kids.
So, without further ado, four life lessons I learned from my father.
“You are representing Jesus and the family.”
When we would leave the house, even as very young kids, my dad would remind us that we had a great responsibility to uphold the family names – both Jesus and our family I think that normalizing that for us helped us as we made decisions, especially as we got older. He never used it as a weapon, only a reminder that we were called to something greater, held to a higher standard.
Let your life point people to Christ.
My Dad was a farmer and he worked with all kinds of people in our community and the surrounding area. He was known as a man who would drop anything to help, give of his time and resources, and tell you the truth. He was known and respected for his choices to abstain from certain behavior and no one felt judged by him. He simply lived by a different standard – and people saw it. He lived his life as an arrow pointing to the work Jesus had done in his heart. When presented with the opportunity, he would share his faith or say the hard thing or call you out – and he was respected for that. His walk matched his talk and that spoke volumes to those he did life with.
“Does it line up with scripture?”
As a kid, I remember coming home from church and asking questions (or rather, Dad starting a conversation about the sermon) and being told “well, does it line up with scripture?” I know I must have said, well I guess so – the pastor said it! But my Dad would say, “go look it up for yourself.” He wanted us to make our faith our own. He made it very clear that just because he believed and was saved didn’t mean that we automatically were. He wanted us to search and flesh things out for ourselves. That made such an impact on me, especially as I grew up and had to navigate difficult decisions, communities that taught their own version of the Bible, and relationships.
“Is it ethical?”
Ah, ethics. We were in Pizza Hut. I do not at all remember the context, but my brother and I got a lesson in ethics that day that boiled down to “is it what is honoring to God and others?” It’s now a family joke that we bring up all the time, but also a sobering truth that really shaped our decision making skills at a young age!
My father was quite the man, and even if your own earthly father wasn’t, I pray that these examples show that the little moments of parenting add up. Each little teachable moment has the potential for big impact. If you’re a parent, point your kids to Christ – He’ll show them the way. And if you have a father figure here on earth, I just want to gently remind you that we aren’t promised tomorrow. Take time to love, thank and build relationship every chance you’re given.
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