An annual tribute to the dad that raised me in hope that it is an encouragement to you:
Born in 1917, four years after his parents immigrated from the south of Russia, he spent his early years growing up in Nebraska. The family continued to speak Russian in the home so when it came time to go to school, the young boy was held back a year until he could learn English. Railroad work took his family to Missouri where he proved to be a good worker and strong athlete through school. He joined his dad working in the roundhouse at the railyard until the attack on Pearl Harbor changed the direction of his life. He enlisted ...read on

As you might expect, June is my favorite month of the year because it is Father’s Day month. Across this month, I want to issue this reminder for all men - dads, adoptive dads and spiritual fathers, as to how important a father is. Our Heavenly Father shares the moniker ‘father’ with us because He expects us to represent Him well in family. The charge is to embrace this high calling and honor Him. Commit this day to step forward and accept the charge.
THIS FATHER’S DAY, June 16th, 2024, I accept the ...read on

Last month I encouraged all to honor moms and treat them special across Mother’s Day month. This month, the call is out for dads to enjoy the blessings of being a dad or spiritual father to the full. What an honor it is that the Heavenly Father would share the moniker ‘father’ with us earthly dads. Wow! The associated responsibility can be overwhelming.

What should Father’s Day month look like? Start with ...read on

Identity clarity is knowing who you are, what family you belong to and, as a Christian, Whose you are. Trauma early in life can throw confusion into the understanding of one’s identity. A physically abusive home may be the first thing that comes to mind but kids can incur trauma in dysfunctional and single parent homes as well. Adoptees often suffer trauma from the get-go with the loss of their mother’s loving voice and touch.

As we head into my favorite month of the year, Father’s Day month, this is an encouragement for dads to ...read on

What is your relationship with social media? The good news is that there is a lot of information available at your fingertips. The bad news is that there is a lot of information available at your fingertips.

Check out the Faithful Fathering Podcast to hear a perspective on various media offered by Shanita Hart with Street Grace Ministries. We discussed the good, ...read on

Were you in the room when your bride gave birth to your child(ren)? Our first born entered this world in distress because she had gotten wrapped up in the umbilical cord. After a long pregnancy and several hours in delivery, there was a new level of concern as to whether the baby was going to be okay. She was fine but it was like God was telling us to never take His miracle of child-birth, and the opportunity to be a mom and a dad, for granted.

On Mother’s Day the tendency is to put the focus on our moms, and rightly so. But as dads, it is very important to ...read on

An annual tribute to my mother and an encouragement to you:
She was an incredible woman. Born in 1921, she aspired to be a vocal performer. As a senior in high school, she contracted tuberculosis. Her dream to perform was no longer possible and the vocal scholarship to attend college was rescinded. She married a handsome Navy pilot just before he was deployed to the South Pacific Theater in WWII. He returned quite a different man than the one she married. Post-Traumatic Stress played a major role in the alcoholism and other challenges the marriage and family would face over the ensuing years. Ma endured a life of suffering and poverty but persevered to provide for her family and was rich in a faith grounded in her relationship with Jesus the Christ. She was the most spiritual person I have known – her intentionality to unconditionally love and pray fervently for family and others was amazing. Finally, it was congestive heart failure that opened the door for her to go Home in 2010. She was a loving woman, wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. Today she is wearing her ‘victor’s crown’. Thanks for your example, Ma – I love you.

Mother’s Day, the second Sunday in May provides a great opportunity to honor your mother. I am not talking about the Hallmark card, flowers or even Shari’s Berries. I challenge you to write her a tribute or letter of thanks and read it to her. (If she is no longer living, read the letter to your kids.) Take her out to eat and ask her about challenges she faced raising you. (Again, if she is no longer living or not accessible, ask a woman in the church of her generation out to lunch and have a similar conversation.)

I know your afflictions and your poverty – yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown. – Revelation 2:9-10. Life did not play out the way the church in Smyrna may have anticipated. There were attacks in the physical and spiritual realms. Yet the Lord’s expectation was for them to “be faithful, even to the point of death.” In life, families are under attack physically and spiritually. It is easy to blame or even judge parents when things do not go as anticipated. Yet the call is to be faithful to our Father by honoring the earthly mother and father He blessed us with.

The command with a promise is: “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20:12). The promise is one of blessing – it may be a blessing of affirmation; it may involve emotional healing; or it may initiate spiritual healing across generations. What we know is that God is a faithful Father and as we honor our earthly parents, He will follow through with His promise.

Prayer guide: Thank You for the mother and father You blessed me with. Life is playing out exactly as You have planned. I confess there were many years when I was certainly more dishonoring than honoring of my parents. Forgive me. Thank You for the heart change You initiated in me that provided an opportunity to honor my mother and father while they were alive. And thank You for the generational healing my family has experienced as a result. You are an awesome God and a wonderful Father! Amen.

A faithful father leads by example in honoring his mother and father.

Is there anything you need to think differently of? As one of the speakers at the Stand in the Gap event on The Mall in Washington D.C. in 1997, Dr. Tony Evans, Pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, charged the men in attendance to think differently about their role in the home, church and community.

At one point during his talk, he asked the men to ...read on

Football season is done. March madness is behind us. And now baseball season is in full swing! As a sports nut, this pretty well sums up what I need to think less of. As a hunter, if you have the popular plaque in your home that says, “This marriage is interrupted for hunting season,” it may be a sign of something to think less of.

None of this is necessarily bad stuff. But it is stuff that can ...read on

School did not come easy to him. He had friends that never studied but always got better grades than he did. Regular homework was tough enough. Tests required doubling down and investing more time to study. He preferred being outside kicking or throwing a ball but his folks said that he needed to think more of his education than athletics.

Professionally, first rattle out of the box there were ...read on