Dad, what are you trying to build?
Going through the book of 1st and 2nd Kings, you’ll notice a phrase that keeps getting mentioned, “…and he did evil in the eyes of the Lord…” (1 Kings 15:25-26, 33-34, 16:24, 30, 22:52)
From Ahaziah to Asa, Pekahiah to Pekah, Joram to Jeroboam. The list goes up to 32.
Only 8 of the 40 kings did not have this phrase attached to his name.
One of the things that the kings failed to achieve (though they won many wars and battles) is that they didn’t build sons. They built kingdoms, yes, but they didn’t build sons.
As a father, what are you trying to accomplish?
Deuteronomy 6:4-7 sh0ws us our 2-fold job description as a dad.
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
1. TO LOVE GOD WHOLEHEARTEDLY.
A lot of this is caught rather than taught.
As we love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, our kids will observe it and imitate.
A word of caution, they can tell if it’s fake or real. Kids these days are way too smart. They can smell hypocrisy from 100 miles.
2. TO TEACH OUR SONS DILIGENTLY
Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
In other words, wherever you are, talk to them about God’s word. This cannot just happen in church or else our kids will learn to compartamentalize their spiritual life.
“Worshipping God is at church. But when I’m in school, I’m worshipping someone else.”
They will not articulate that statement but they may definitely fall into the trap of living it.
Whether we are a royalty or a ‘commoner’, we are not exempted from these. This is something we cannot delegate to our ‘subjects’ or to our ‘servants’.