Wednesday: Fathers 3

Here am I, and the children God has given me.

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters, and welcome to Salvation Wednesday, the day we pray for the unsaved to come to Jesus. We also pray for God to use us to help bring in the lost.

Please pray today for Peggy Everhart. A year ago I re-married Peggy and her husband Robert at a re-marriage service at The Bridges. Peggy is in the Dementia Unit at The Bridges and has Alzheimer's and sad to say it is advanced. It was so nice to see her husband who stands with her always, getting re-married to one who struggles to even remember him. Last Sunday Robert came to me and said Peggy was failing fast and he was getting plans together for final arrangements. Peggy had several heart attacks the week before. We prayed together and for Peggy. Yesterday Peggy was brought back home to the Bridges and came in the front door singing Amazing Grace. Yes she is still serious but able to come back home to spend time. Please pray for Peggy and Bob Everhart, and all the residents at the Bridges. Also please pray for the staff and for LeaAnne who works at the Bridges and heads up a group called The Bridges Stompers who raise dollars for the support of research to find a cure for Alzheimer's.

Fathers 3: Hebrews 2: 13 - And again, "I will put my trust in Him." And again he says, "Here am I, and the children God has given me." (NIV)

Today I would like to give thanks to God for my children and to thank them for being really good kids. You see, if it were not for God giving me children I would not have had the chance to be a father, a dad, someone who tried to raise kids in the right direction, even though I failed in a lot of times. So I want to thank God for (in order of age) Glenn, Keith, Danelle, Leann and Matthew. I also want to thank God for my stepson Mark. All of these "Kids" have grown to be great men and women. And today I thank them for being good kids and I do pray as all parents that they will walk their lives with God and raise their families that way.

As I look back over the years of being a father, there are a lot of things, a lot of them, that I would do over again and I would think that if you are a father and reading this you would say the same thing. Some things you would keep the same, and some things you would change. I must say, I was not a counter, I did not say if you do not behave I am going to count to ten. If the kids did not behave they got punished. Rules were rules when I was raised, and rules were rules when I raised my family ... and knowing my kids, the same rules apply.

Now as we know from reading the Bible our Father, our Father in heaven, has given us rules also to live by and when we break them, we will also be punished. In fact we get punished daily if we are not walking with the Lord, please think about that. But like our Father in Heaven, we earthly fathers, we dads must also have rules and also must be forgiving. After a punishment we must hug our kids and forgive them.

Fathers, dads, be a man, a real man and step up to the plate and raise your child or children according to God rules, and when something goes wrong, or they step out of line, stay firm on the rules, and don't be a counter. If you don't behave, I am going to count ... enforce those rules and be fair and guys, remember this ... The best gift that God gave us was Jesus, and after that our wives and children. Yes, our children, what makes us a father is a great gift from God. Don't forget it, don't turn your back on it. Don't turn your back on God or your kids ... Amen.

Dear father in Heaven, thanks for my children, thanks for trusting them to me. Sorry when I messed up Lord, but thanks for trusting them to me. I have this special prayer today, I pray that You watch over children all over the world, all of them Lord, even when they become old enough to have children of their own. As Lord I know, I know to this day, I am still Your child, a child of God, and I still need watching over. Help us with our kids regardless of their age. And most of all, I pray that they all know Jesus. As I pray in Jesus name, Amen.

Now let me close with this story about a child ... A grade school girl was listening to her teacher tell of whales and how big they were when she put up her hand and said, "Once a whale swallowed a man." The teacher said that could not happen. The girl said it was in the Bible about Jonah and being swallowed up by a whale. The teacher again said it did not happen. The little girl then said, "when I get to heaven I am going to ask Jonah." And the teacher said, what if Jonah did not get to heaven? With that the little girl said .... "Then you ask him." Ok, time to tell you to share your blessings and love your children, for without them, men we would not be fathers, and ladies you would not be mothers ... love ya, dan.