Here’s the problem: Wounds in one relationship are guaranteed to hinder other relationships. We can’t help it; we project our past experiences onto our current realities. Only our heavenly Father has the ability to take the father wounds so many of us have borne for decades and, in their place, give us new names, new messages, new seeds of Love and Life to be sown for generations to come.
God is inviting every father to a heart-shaping assignment that is his alone as he fathers his children. Yet even as I write these words, I feel the weightiness of my own failures.
It’s the enemy’s way—accusation and doubt, the doorways to guilt and shame: “Who are you to write about fatherhood?” As Billy Graham purportedly said, “A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed, and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society.” If that’s true—and I’m certain it is—then we see why the enemy’s whispers and accusations slither frequently into our thoughts.
Here’s the truth that gives me, and you, hope: The legacy we leave behind isn’t determined by how we started (though that may very well need to be cleaned up) but, rather, by how we move forward from here. That’s what will make the difference in how you and I will be known to our grandchildren and even our great grandchildren. To move consistently in the right direction, we need Fathering as we father.
