June 16, 2009

Number24

VIEWPOINT

We are well under way with our “Crocodile Dock” VBS and it’s a terrific week!  Enthusiasm and excitement were tremendous as we began Sunday evening. 

I am thankful for everyone who is working to make this event successful – keep in mind that this will have an effect that stretches into eternity!

----------------

May I congratulate the Greeneville High School class of 1939!  Class members conducted their 70^th reunion last week. 

This was notable to me since it was my mother’s class.  (She was Betty Ross at that time – now she’s Betty Anderson.)   By now, over two-thirds of the class members have passed away, and my mother was asked to say something in memory of them.

When we talked about what would be appropriate, I noticed that nothing was said about achievements and material accu-mulation.  Instead we were thinking about the importance of the relationships among those people

That’s always true, isn’t it?   When all is said and done with your life and career, people are going to remember your character, the way you treated people, and your loyalty to your family more than your work.

Maybe it would be wise to think about those things now.  That's why the Bible says, “A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver and gold” (Prov. 22:1).

----------------

I look forward to seeing you in a few days.  I hope you’ll keep a smile on your face and a positive word on your lips!    RA

FATHERS

I firmly believe that our earliest, and often most critical and lasting, notions about God, our heavenly Father, are formed by our earliest notions about our earthly fathers.  The way we regard our earthly fathers dictates the respect, the obedience, the honor, and the love with which we regard their presence and directives — and so it is with our heavenly Father.  Those notions begin very early and take shape slowly, expanding and being redefined with specific incidents, maturity, and perspective.  I think of my father much differently now than I did when he died in 1963.

Mothers are most appreciated when you’re small and when you’re growing up. Often, fathers don’t get appreciated until much later. Sometimes you have to be fifty or sixty before you really understand what they did for you. Fathering never stops — and some of the most important fathering my dad ever did was  when I was grown.

What is a father? Fathers have jobs — they bring home money. Fathers work — even when they are sick, when they hate their jobs, and when they see no hope.

Fathers are fixers. They can fix anything — plumbing, bicycles, lawnmowers, and toy trucks. And when they can’t fix it — they say they don’t have the right tools or that we needed a new one anyway or that they don’t make them like they used to. They even fix cuts, bruises, and disappointments — or make them unimportant.

Fathers are not afraid of the dark, the neighbor’s dog, or the boogie man.

Fathers should be storytellers. Almost everything that happens should remind them of another time, and when they tell those stories, they must stop being businessmen, plumbers, electricians, computer programmers, and salesmen — and become the boys they once were — and never will be again — but they should never stop longing or trying.

Fathers need to be decision makers. They need to know where they’re going, and they need to accept responsibility when they go wrong. Fathers need to defy a culture that seeks to emasculate and feminize them and turn them into junior partners on the family board of directors.

Fathers need to provide spiritual leadership for their families. They should not be ashamed to be seen praying or reading their Bibles. They must be careful to act and talk in harmony with scriptural injunctions and precedents — and when they go wrong — they admit their error, ask forgiveness, pray about it, and leave it behind them.

The Bible portrays four major characteristics of God that every father should emulate. First, God is dependable and consistent. God keeps his word —either yes or no or not now. Second, God is understanding. When we tell God, “It wasn’t my fault,” he may say, “Yes, it was,” or “I know it wasn’t” or “It really doesn’t matter, now does it?” Third, God is forgiving, which means that sometimes I don’t get what I deserve and sometimes I do. Fourth, God is loving, and that means that he always acts in my best interests.

What kind of a father are you? What notions about God do your children have?  

(by John William Smith)