What Makes Fathers Happy?

I am always delighted when our youngsters and grandchildren send a Father’s Day greeting.  It is the same when a spiritual son expresses appreciation.  It touches my heart.  Recently I have been reflecting on why - what makes a father happy?

But first, some un-happiness…..

We all make mistakes and fall short of perfection.  I know that I have not always been the good father I aspire to be.  In fact, on becoming parents, Catherine and I decided that we would model admitting our mistakes and asking forgiveness from our little ones even before they could understand the words (as well of course as maintaining firmness in what we taught them to be right).

Many people and their fathers experience much worse unhappiness, like

-     the guilt of the absent father who realises he is wholly or partly responsible for the relationship breakdown;

-     the longing of a man who wants to become a father but cannot;

-     the pain of the young man who does not have a father in his life as a role model, pain that may be passed to the next generation as he repeats his own father’s mistakes

-     the lifelong agony of those whose fathers were abusive

-     and more…..

Happy Father’s Day?

The good news is that we can all come to a heavenly Father who is perfect, however mixed our feelings about Father’s Day or painful the memories, and find forgiveness and healing. 

The salvation Jesus achieved at the Cross is so much more than just forgiving our sins - it is the way we can be healed and transformed and find grace to forgive even those who caused severe hurt.  Our inner selves and our relationships, even whole families, can be healed.  It starts with simply coming to Father through Jesus and asking for help from the Spirit.

What makes Father God happy? 

He loves it when we come to Him with open hearts to receive His life, when we are creative in His image, and when we fulfil our potential.

We are made in God’s image and in Ephesians 3:15 Paul refers to God as the Father from whom all fatherhood takes its name - that can be translated as “from whom all parenting takes its character.” 

So, what makes me happy as a father? 

Many things … such as

-     when I rest in God’s forgiveness for my own mistakes and see Him changing me;

-     when I see natural and spiritual sons and daughters grow in grace and find forgiveness and healing from God;

-     when I see natural and spiritual sons and daughters explore their own particular callings and personalities, and especially when they go further than I have.

Fathers do like messages on Father’s Day.  But what a godly father really wants so much more is for natural and spiritual sons and daughters to flourish as Father God intended.

-     Chris Horton