Men's Monday Message: A Father's Love

​Good morning men of God,

To the dads. a Happy Father's Day (belated).

I guess it is only natural and proper to think of those father figures, those men who have sown into our lives the best they knew how, as we are products of the relationship of "father and son".

My dad is gone now.... 3 years... and I miss him.

Today I thought I would share an excerpt from my book, Seventh-Inning Stretch: Reflections on the Game of Life.

The Afterthought of Chapter 1.

​The Value of a Father's Love.

​    The song "Good, Good Father" comes to mind every time I think of my dad, and that causes me to think about my - our - Heavenly Father. It also brings me to a place of thanksgiving as I know that so many men lack a "good dad" in their lives.

   As I reflect on this, I’ve come to realize that there is great value in a father’s love that assists in the building of a man. Conversely, the absence of this love impedes a man’s ability to fulfill his God-given destiny, thus preventing him from establishing his true identity as God designed. Our earthly fathers are just like us: flawed, imperfect, defective, broken men who lead lives wrought with strife. What should we—can we—expect from such men? The word “reproduction” means to make a copy. The broken father can only reproduce broken children–broken sons. And worse, the absent father leaves a void, a hole, an emptiness that sends the godly definition of adulthood, manhood, and maturity, into the abyss.

The truth is we have one good and perfect Father as Jesus demonstrated when He taught His disciples the Lord’s Prayer—one who absolutely and unconditionally loves and accepts us just as we are, one who forgives, cleanses, and raises up. Whether we have had a good dad, a troubled dad, or no dad at all, our Heavenly Father knows what we need, what we lack, and the mess we may be. Only He can fulfill all we need. Only He can fix the magnitude of our brokenness. Only He can complete the created masterpiece of me–of you.

Maybe that’s the point. We so often focus on the areas of ourselves that are lacking, broken, deficient, and ugly that we never see the hand of the Master at work in ourselves. Our default belief is often that, if we are without a proper role model, we cannot develop into the man we were intended to be. We look to our dads or lack thereof and decide we can be no better than the template we have been provided. THAT’S A LIE! Instead, we should embrace the truth that Father God is all the “father” we need. Look! God knows our plight, the cards we’ve been dealt, and the struggle for our mind and body survival. He understands why we are the way we are. And, He says, “So what?” This is not His intent for us.

God created us in His perfect image, not in the image of an imperfect or gone-astray dad. Let us not look where we came from, what we came from, or who we came from, but have hope and confidence in our Heavenly Father not to leave us in our current condition. As He presents Himself before us, He will command us to “stand up and be the man”—act the man and not the child. We can be more than we are if we let God do His thing with us. As the Good Book says, “…be confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it…” (Philippians 1:6).

“Father to the fatherless, defender of widows—this is God, whose dwelling is holy.”

(Psalm. 68:5, NLT)

​Think about it!

​Strength and Honor, but Only for His Glory,

​MDN Coach Dennis Labriola

Author of Seventh-Inning Stretch: Reflection on the Game of Life

Seventh-Inning Stretch: Reflections on the Game of Life by Dennis Labriola, Paperback | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)

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