What is the best work of a father?

This is from one of my brothers, Mike Paschall… he wrote
this to his two daughters and son-in-laws last year on father’s day – good stuff
– Happy fathers day – and to my daddy; I love you and believe in you – you really
are the best dad that ever lived!

“It’s not that
early, but I’m sitting here this morning attempting to get myself together for
today’s service.  I don’t do “themes” well in the pulpit.  But, I do want to
talk some this morning about the world’s
need for fathers…to actually “be” fathers.  I have real regrets
about my “fathering” at times…more so when you girls were children.  I see young
dads do and say things sometimes that directly kick me in the gut now.  It
wasn’t that long ago that those things were done and said by myself!  But, I
think (no…I know) that grace has triumphed magnificently when I see how you’ve
turned out.  Truth be known, the Lord and your mother compensated and helped
redeem most messes on my behalf.  But now, my attention turns to the fathers who
will raise my grand-children, to the stewards the churches that I’ve helped
plant & grow and to respond to the life mission of raising spiritual sons
and daughters (where-ever and when-ever God deems appropriate).  The question
that I will ask and the question I will attempt to answer is simple: 
What is the best work of a
father?  What a question huh?!  I will try…maybe even grope
around some, but my genuine response in part is this:  The best work of a father is a sober and reverent
realization that he is nothing without God.  He has total awareness that he is a
human being…prone to sin and failure…but he swims against that current and never
succumbs to just float along.  He is quick to repent of what he wounds.  He is
quick to embrace the strong and the weak.  He serves his wife.  He serves his
children.  In doing so, he serves the Lord.  He understands and pursues how to
be a good son.   He assumes all of the
responsibility that tracks with his authority.  He doesn’t act out headship as
role-play…he “is” headship.  It’s in his DNA as a God-ordained code.  It should
be as natural to a father to lead as it is for a mother to nurture and protect
her babies.  Some of God’s designs are not learned, they come instinctively.  A
father fights the internal devils inside himself so he may fulfill “all” destiny
that God has planted in him.   He is never satisfied with a partial crop of
spiritual fruit.  He is willing to “pay the cost” for the benefit of those
around him…whether anyone ever notices or not.  He fulfills the greatest call on
his life…to speak “destiny” and truth to the generations that will follow him. 
It is a natural work with prophetic and eternal
implications. 

How I’m doing with all of that?  I don’t know?  Don’t
answer it for me. {smile} But, it is always in my face and it seems to swell
daily with all the implications of what is important to me now.  I’m grateful
that my own flesh and blood “loved” me into being a father.  The credit goes to
you and to the Lord.  It is a privilege that I do not take
lightly.  Love never fails! Dad  xo