Great Piece. Every Dad should read this. I quit a job years ago for this very reason. One time I even had to leave a Bible Study because it was taking too much of my Dad time.
Beautiful, nice work Dad. My son just started a new job in a pot ash mine in Saskatchewan two weeks on two weeks off. I didn’t spend as much time as I could have maybe that’s why he struggles with trusting God and that He is always there for him. He’s 25 and just got Baptized by his Dad and is proposing to his girl friend soon. Maybe he just has a lot in his plate. I’m always reminded of the song’ Cats in the cradle and little boy blue and man in the moon’ Thanks for the reminder. Gotta work on that connection
While I was growing up in the 1950s, my dad served as kind of an operations manager for a large carpentry contracting company owned by his brother. From time to time he would take me to work with him on Fridays, when his primary task was driving around to different job sites to distribute paychecks. While always a hard worker, my dad retained good presence with his family and it was only later as an adult that I came to appreciate what he was doing by having me tag along on those Friday journeys.
I was able to do something similar with one of my sons. While operations manager of a Christian radio station, I'd take him to work and let him run the station control board as part of his homeschool activities.
My experience, both as parent and child, bear-out your thinking in this regard of effective discipleship.
My father was absent, or worse — directly contributing to my doubts and fears regarding my nascent faith. As a father myself, I followed the lead of my first earthly father, Adam. I was directly responsible for treating my children with the same contempt for their flourishing as believers as my father had shown for me.
Now, though I have been transformed by the grace of God and have acknowledged my sin of absence, my children have been inoculated against trusting in God, Whom they see as a phony because their earthly father made such a strong argument against their need for a father — any father, heavenly or human.
I pray for the Lord’s intercession and that I might be used by the Lord to minister the Gospel to them at this late date — all are now well into adulthood.
We do share the bonds family in a cultural sense, but they find my relationship with Christ and his Church to be simply an esoteric quirk of their father, which they may humor or despise at the drop of a hat, just as I would have before God reconstructed my world by taking all my earthly treasures from me, and leaving me destitute and fully broken.
I pray the Lord to bring them to saving faith by a less arduous route, but I submit them to His providence for His glory and for my children’s ultimate ends.
"Work-life balance" is a catchphrase thrown around a lot these days, but it is usually discussed in a selfish way. When it begins to affect the spouse and kids, that's when it becomes absolutely vital.
"But children often feel things long before they can explain them."
This is so true. Thank you.
Great Piece. Every Dad should read this. I quit a job years ago for this very reason. One time I even had to leave a Bible Study because it was taking too much of my Dad time.
Beautiful, nice work Dad. My son just started a new job in a pot ash mine in Saskatchewan two weeks on two weeks off. I didn’t spend as much time as I could have maybe that’s why he struggles with trusting God and that He is always there for him. He’s 25 and just got Baptized by his Dad and is proposing to his girl friend soon. Maybe he just has a lot in his plate. I’m always reminded of the song’ Cats in the cradle and little boy blue and man in the moon’ Thanks for the reminder. Gotta work on that connection
As the crush of the cost of living drives me to work more and more overtime to keep even, or, to fall behind more slowly... this post. Thanks.
While I was growing up in the 1950s, my dad served as kind of an operations manager for a large carpentry contracting company owned by his brother. From time to time he would take me to work with him on Fridays, when his primary task was driving around to different job sites to distribute paychecks. While always a hard worker, my dad retained good presence with his family and it was only later as an adult that I came to appreciate what he was doing by having me tag along on those Friday journeys.
I was able to do something similar with one of my sons. While operations manager of a Christian radio station, I'd take him to work and let him run the station control board as part of his homeschool activities.
My experience, both as parent and child, bear-out your thinking in this regard of effective discipleship.
My father was absent, or worse — directly contributing to my doubts and fears regarding my nascent faith. As a father myself, I followed the lead of my first earthly father, Adam. I was directly responsible for treating my children with the same contempt for their flourishing as believers as my father had shown for me.
Now, though I have been transformed by the grace of God and have acknowledged my sin of absence, my children have been inoculated against trusting in God, Whom they see as a phony because their earthly father made such a strong argument against their need for a father — any father, heavenly or human.
I pray for the Lord’s intercession and that I might be used by the Lord to minister the Gospel to them at this late date — all are now well into adulthood.
We do share the bonds family in a cultural sense, but they find my relationship with Christ and his Church to be simply an esoteric quirk of their father, which they may humor or despise at the drop of a hat, just as I would have before God reconstructed my world by taking all my earthly treasures from me, and leaving me destitute and fully broken.
I pray the Lord to bring them to saving faith by a less arduous route, but I submit them to His providence for His glory and for my children’s ultimate ends.
I pray that dad’s read this.
was that last song made by Ai? 😅
I've got a stray myself: pray I can do this for her.
"Work-life balance" is a catchphrase thrown around a lot these days, but it is usually discussed in a selfish way. When it begins to affect the spouse and kids, that's when it becomes absolutely vital.