Dads, it’s gut check time!

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Dads, it’s gut check time!

Life Today!

©2022 | Bill C. Dotson

The effect of a father

What we are observing today is a steady decline in morality, ethics, mental health, both personal and in corporate life. To me, it matches the decline in the impact that the church is having on our society. The young people, especially, are turning away from anything to do with the church or Christianity. My strong observation is—it is being brought about by the lack of an engaged father in the home, or none at all. One only has to look at the articles and statistics of a fatherless home. Even the ones that are in the home physically are many times not engaged in the discipleship of their children for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Their peers and social media are their ‘go to’ places for mentorship.

I believe the root cause of everything we are seeing can be traced to the father. I’m sorry to put such a heavy burden on us men, but my years of experience and observations in prisons, juvenile detention centers, homeless shelters and now through Abiding Fathers ministry, leads me to this conclusion. Politicians and government will never be the answer. The common grace of blessing from God on America is slowly eroding because we have turned from him to many other idols. It didn’t work with Israel ever, and it won’t work here.

That’s why I’m calling us dads, granddads and great granddads to take a gut check. And there’s no time better than now. Before it is too late. So what is a gut check, Bill? It’s a test or assessment of courage, character, or determination. Another way of putting it—an evaluation or test of a person’s resolve, commitment, or priorities, typically with respect to a particular course of action. This originated in the military and, interestingly enough, in tennis. To do a gut check, is to honor your instincts or listen to your intuition. It’s not physical, it is mental.

Disciple your children

So, in light of this, what are we dads going to do? I think we should look at God’s word to see the severity by not stepping up and taking the gut check, then acting on it. I’m going to direct us to two sets of verses in the Old Testament related to the fathers and their families. I’ll start with Psalm 78.1-8. God commands that we disciple our children, even to 3-4 generations. He concludes with this. And that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.” (vs. 8)

Next, Malachi 4.6 which is the last recorded verse in the Old Testament. I say it is extremely important. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

Power

Gut check indeed! Over the past year I have observed the Ukrainian people who have taken a gut check, have dug in and are fighting for their lives and their freedom. I think fatherhood is just as serious. The bombs are different, but they are nevertheless dropping everywhere. Dads, we have the power, his Holy Spirit; Jesus is interceding for us, and the Father is cheering us on. He will move heaven and earth to see his dads succeed. And next year, it will be an even merrier Christmas.

Article Notes:
Scripture taken from the ESV
Definitions taken from Oxford Dictionaries and Merriam-Webster

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Abiding Fathers is a Biblical fatherhood discipleship ministry committed to helping men be the dad…God wants them to be. It’s a movement of God that is “International-Relational-Generational”. Join with us. We need you!


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