My Father Can Be Your Father!Sample

I NOTICED HIS AGE

It was in elementary school that I noticed dad’s age. All the other kids' parents were so much younger looking. I guess when Mother and I would go to PTA meetings at the school, is when I would see kids with dads that looked younger.

It was my dad that made sure we kids went to Sunday School and Church each week. My father might have been older, but I sure loved to hear the stories he would tell us kids about when he was growing up!  I loved when he would warn us about different things that would cause us problems in life…it seemed he just knew from experience!

“My child, will you treasure my wisdom? Then, and only then, will you acquire it. And only if you accept my advice and hide it within will you succeed. So, train your heart to listen when I speak and open your spirit wide to expand your discernment—then pass it on to your sons and daughters.”  Proverbs 2:1-2 

Many times, I would walk into our living room and hear him reading the Bible to our neighbor who suffered from Parkinson’s Disease. There was something very special about that black book he was reading from.

I don’t remember him preaching to us kids but rather lived out the example before us. He was that good neighbor and it didn’t matter who you were.

Many a summer we could count on this man coming through town. I don’t know how my father met him, but I do know he welcomed him to our home. Year after year that man, with tattered clothing and not smelling the best, would show up on our front porch and daddy would provide him with a meal cooked up by mama and a hot cup of ‘Old Joe!’. Mama would bag up leftovers and put them in a brown bag for him to take along his undetermined journey.

Maybe some of the other kids' parents fed him too, I will never know, but I know I saw the actions of the image of a Heavenly Father who is drawn to the less likely and showing love to the one who is down and out!

CAN YOU RELATE?

Being told something often doesn’t resonate as much as seeing something happen. I don’t know about you, but I tend to retain better if I see something before my eyes. I think that is why I was always drawn to illustrations and why God made man as an image. How about you?

A TIME TO REFLECT:

1. Recall something from your childhood that causes you to be who you are today.

2. Do you find the older you become that you are doing some of the very things your parent or parents did?

3. Dig into your memory of a time when you saw another person reach out in a father's love to help you or another person that needed help.

Join me in tomorrow’s study to see how one man can influence a way of life!