Fatherhood is an adventure, a challenge, a chore! It’s exciting to teach a son (or daughter) how to hit a baseball or to watch a daughter (or son) win a spelling bee. But being a father is hard when a six-year-old son asks “Why?” for the thousandth time or a daughter throws a screaming tantrum in a mega-store just because you won’t buy her a fifteenth Barbie! And sometimes fatherhood is just hard work—cleaning up after a sick child or trying to get siblings to stop fighting again.
We all want to be better fathers. We try our hardest to be like Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show but often are more like clueless Ray Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond. Perhaps our own fathers failed to be role models for us; or even if we had great dads, we know we can improve as fathers with our own children. If only we had a perfect father to imitate.
The good news is, we do. God gives us an example of perfect fatherhood in the Bible—Himself! He made each one of us, and in His great love, He claims us as His children (1 John 3:1). By becoming more like Him, we can become better fathers. He is the Father of fathers—the best ever, the Heavenly Father who can help us be the dads we were meant to be.
As our Father, God loves us—always, unconditionally—when we please Him and when we don’t, just as we still love our children even when they disobey us. In fact, He sent His Son to bear the punishment we deserve, to die in our place, and He is willing to forgive us if we will just come to Him and confess our disobedience, believing in Jesus Christ as our Savior. He longs for our return to Him, just as the father of the prodigal son waited for him with open arms in Jesus’ famous story (Luke 15:20). We don’t deserve God’s love and forgiveness, but He loves us anyway. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
We all fall short as fathers, and as men. Even on our best days, when we’re trying so hard to be patient with our sons and daughters, we can become critical or demanding. We not only need God’s wisdom and love as fathers—we need His forgiveness and love for ourselves.
Perhaps you already know God through Jesus Christ but need to grow in your relationship with Him. Begin by reading the Bible, spending time in prayer, and fellowshipping with other Christians at a Bible-teaching church. In the process, God’s example of perfect fatherhood will become clearer and you will gain the strength and wisdom to follow Him more closely. You have committed your soul to God; now commit your fatherhood to Him as well.
Or perhaps you realize that as a father you need to be more like God, but you know little about Him or don’t understand how to know Him personally. Talk to Him in prayer, asking His Son Jesus to come into your life. “But to all who did receive him [Jesus Christ], who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). If you desire to take this step, we invite you to pray this prayer:
Lord, I want to be the father I ought to be, but I know that first I need to be the man I should be. I need to know You and to receive forgiveness of my sins through Your Son, Jesus Christ, who died for me. I now turn from my ways of disobedience and ask that Jesus Christ be my Savior and Lord. Amen.