What Your Children Need

Men of Integrity has a very powerful devotional theme this week: How to Be a Caring Dad. Woven throughout this week's writings is the notion that no matter what age they are, our children need two things--encouragement and unconditional love. So the question for God's men is this: Are you providing encouragement and unconditional love to your children? Or better yet, ask your children if they are getting these things from you.

Ephesians 6:4 is a crucial memory verse for every Christian dad---Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Our children need to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we love them and are behind them no matter what. Setting unrealistic goals and expectations will tell our children that our love for them is performance-based and conditional. Sarcasm and criticism will quickly discourage our children and force them to seek approval and validation from other sources; which likely will not be God-honoring. If we don't demonstrate unconditional love to our children, how can we possibly expect them to understand the Gospel and accept Christ's unconditional love?

Our God-given role as fathers is to disciple our children in the instruction of the Lord. It starts by loving God with all of our heart, soul and might. It continues with taking God's Word and binding it to our hearts and allowing our children to see it make a difference in our lives. It is carried out by living and sharing life with our children and using every opportunity to pour Biblical truth into their hearts and minds (Deuteronomy 6:5-9). And finally, it is giving them the encouragement and the unconditional love that best comes from their Daddy!