Fathers, Love Their Mother!
by Tim Lamb
Heard a quote concerning a renowned Christian
Pastor. It was his
widow who was interviewed after remarrying
following his death.
When asked how her new husband could measure up to
the great man of
her past she said simply her late husband loved
Jesus, but her new
husband loved her.
The only indictment of a great pastor and
theologian, but a stinging
one.
A man cannot be a good father until he is a good
husband to his wife.
He can do all sort of wonderful things for his
kids and give them all
his attention but if he doesn’t give them the
picture of how a godly
man keeps his covenant to his wife he has failed.
The children can
feel completely loved by their father but not know
what love is unless
he also shows it in how he keeps his relationship
to the one with whom
he took a vow.
Paul tells the Ephesians in chapter five:
“25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also
loved the church
and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might
sanctify her, …28 So
husbands ought also to love their own wives as
their own bodies. He
who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no
one ever hated his own
flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as
Christ also does the
church, 30 because we are members of His body.”
God established the family this way so that boys
would see what it
meant to love a woman and girls would see and know
what to look for in
a man. When the father fails he leaves such a
hole in their
knowledge.
Even if you have already been divorced from their
mother, men, it’s
never too late to respect her and be godly and
committed in all future
relationships.
We do so much living at the expense of the next
generation and then
hope and pray they get it right. Men, it’s time
to step up to the
plate…time to lead by example. No one can teach
your children like
you can, simply by doing the right thing.
Honoring God and working
hard and being responsible and teaching them how
to respect themselves
and their mother - and by doing so they might just
respect you too.
In the movie” Fireproof” The husband and wife are
estranged but still
living in the same house. They are about to go
through a messy
divorce when the husband, Caleb, played by Kirk
Cameron, recognizes he
cannot love without Christ. He commits himself to
Jesus then commits
himself to fixing the marriage he destroyed by his
selfish ungodly
behavior.
In one scene Caleb gets on his knees and confesses
the way he has hurt
his wife and begs her forgiveness and every time I
watch that I cry
too because I did the same things in my marriage.
But God got to us
in time for my daughters to see what God can
restore, and what God can
do to make a man a better husband and father.
I speak as a sinner, saved by grace, when I tell
you these things.
Only God could make me able to love my wife the
way I should. It is
not our place to judge how much our spouse is
loving us but to look at
ourselves and ask if we are truly loving the
other.
If you think you love someone are you wanting the
best of them for
yourself, or the best God has for them?
True love? We look for it and long for it and
even think,
occasionally, that we’ve found it…but what is it,
really?
Most of us have an idea what love looks like but
do we really have any
idea what it is?
The Bible says…it’s God. God is Love.
1 John 4:16b “…God is love, and the one who
abides in love abides in
God, and God abides in him.”
Love wants the best for others…right?
Take it another step: Love wants the best for
others before
self…right?
One more step: Love wants what God wants for
others…Right again?
Love wants love for the one loved. To love is to
want God in your
heart so that you can show God – who is love – to
the person you wish
to love.
Love is to sacrifice and put the needs of others
before yourself.
That is what Jesus did. This is love, not that we
loved God, but that
He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice for
our sins. 1 John 4:10
When someone says you can have the love of Jesus
know this, that Jesus
shows His love in that He gave everything for you;
that while we were
yet sinners Christ died for us.
The greatest commandment is that we love the Lord
our God with all
that we have and all that we are. The irony of
this is that we cannot
do it without Him. Seems God in His great mercy
made us to need Him.
It’s really all about Him; everything is about
Him; this love thing
is about Him – and yet in His love and mercy He
makes it about us.
Isn’t that what Love is?
Fathers, honor God by showing your children what
love is - by the love
and respect you give to their mother. This is the
best gift you can
give to your kids.
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