Godly Fathers

God is the archetypal Father; all other fatherhood is a more or less imperfect copy. - F.F. Bruce

No Perfect Fathers

Fatherhood is a tricky thing to master. There is so little training and yet many expectations. We are called upon as fathers to provide, protect, love and serve; while also training our children to love their mother and love their God. The weight of this can be scary because we tend to hear stories of the failure of fathers more often than stories of successes.

We need to make this clear from the beginning, there are no "Perfect Fathers." Only imperfect men who have been given a role that they must mature into. Faithful fathers grow alongside their children into maturity as a parent. Our goal should be model the our actions as fathers after the actions of our heavenly father. We will never be the perfect father, but we can hope to be a godly one.

Benefits of a Godly Father

Godly fathers are simply men who long to know God and to help their family know Him too. They long to walk in integrity and righteousness so that their children will know the holiness of God, and they long to offer a love to their family that points to the love of Christ.

A godly father offers an example that their children will follow. By virtue of bearing the name "Father" we are bestowed a leadership role. That means that the mantle of "Father" tells us that we have littles who look to us for guidance and are watching our every move. Our example helps shape the people that our children want to be.

Godly father must be careful to act righteously and with integrity and our children will be blessed.

We can only give to our families what we have received. We are recipient of a beautiful love of our most glorious creator. The love of a godly father is modeled after the love of God for his people.

The most amazing expression of God's love for his people is found in the sacrificing of His son Jesus, to purchase a people to be set aside as His own. Fathers do well to sacrifice as we love. We give of ourselves to our spouses and die to ourselves for our children. Setting aside all desires that are in conflicting with loving and nurturing our family. If godly fathers love sacrificially, then our families will experience and know the love of God.