The calling of a father

Sometimes my sons (mainly my 3 year old) can annoy me beyond belief, but sometimes (a lot of the times) he makes me smile, laugh and cry (happy tears, as they say). That was the case this week.

On Monday nights, me and some other guys from my church get together as a Bible study/prayer meeting/accountability group. My wife has her own small group meeting on the same night. Usually, my parents keep our kids, but they are on vacation in Florida right now.

So we had the two boys and had to take them to our groups with us. My wife asked me which one I wanted to take. At first I was going to go the easy way out and take the 3 month old, but I decided to take my oldest son. He had been gone for 2 1/2 weeks, so I wanted to spend some time with him anyway.

When I got to the classroom at our church that we meet in, I gave my son his crayons, a coloring book and a wooden train set. He spent most of the time playing, making noise and running around jumping on chairs.

Then he saw me and some of the other guys start reading the Bible and discussing a passage. He went over and got his VeggieTales Bible holder, opened up his Bible and started "reading," too. It struck me then, but it wasn't until we started praying that God really pointed it out to me.

I started praying thanking God for my son being home and I thanked Him for Wesley being there with us. I started crying and almost couldn't finish as I thanked God for Wesley wanting to open his Bible to be like his Daddy. (I am tearing up as I write this.)

It is such an awesome responsibility to be a father (or a mother). To have been entrusted by God with the upbringing of child, is an awe-inspiring, sometimes scary situation. But as I thought about my son and him "reading" his Bible to be like me, it humbled and inspired me.

I want to be more like my "Daddy," my Heavenly Father, so that when my sons look at me and they will see Him. I want them to see their Daddy acting like Jesus. I want them to see me love their Mommy like Christ loved the Church. I want them to see me be a servant leader in our family. I want them to read the Bible and pray because they saw it was important to Daddy and then because it is important to them. I want to leave my children with a faith that is radical, on-fire and strong.

That is my calling as a father - to present my children with a faith that is real, a faith that impacts and changes every area of my life.

I pray that there will be many more moments when I leave footprints on the right path for my sons.