Another Fatherly Reminder

Hey, thanks for the great men's meeting this morning. It's always fun to eat breakfast while talking about the things of the Lord.

In keeping with yesterday's post, I wanted to include the following paragraph from Fathering Like the Father. It pertains specifically to a dad, like myself, who is involved in full-time ministry. But I think it also applies to all of us as Christian fathers. (In other words, you guys aren't off the hook, just because you're not church employees.)

On pages 102-103, the authors write:

We would all agree that fathers who neglect their children because they work sixteen hours a day making millions of dollars to buy large estates and yachts do not glorify God, do not practice holiness, and invite God's judgment on their lives. We might be more lenient with a pastor or priest who spends so much time "in the Lord's work" that his own children choose the wide path to destruction. We might, but not God. He held Eli personally responsible for the godless behavior of Hophni and Phinehas. And before this story ends, Eli is dead, both sons are dead, Israel has faced horrendous defeat by the Philistines, and the ark of the Covenant is captured. ... God has little interest in our excuses.... Irresponsible parents produce irresponsible children, and the fact that Eli was a priest cut him no slack with God.

Now that's a sobering reminder, to say the least.