How to be a Loving Dad

Well, being a dad is a great challenge, isn't it? Because kids are so unpredictable. You never know what children are going to say. One little guy crawled up into the barber shop chair and turned to the barber and said, I want to haircut just like my dad's, a big hole right on the top here. It's hard to figure out what kids are thinking sometimes too, isn't it? I can remember when our oldest daughter Amy was very young, she was still a baby. And I remember she liked playing this game with us where she would take her rattle and throw it out of the crib. And I remember one time I picked it up and it back to her. She threw it out again. This went on maybe 10, 15 times. Suddenly, she got this devious little grin on her face. And I don't know what she was thinking, but I can almost guarantee it was something like this. You're a lot of fun, not too bright, but you're a lot of fun. Hard to figure out sometimes, isn't it? And it's hard to relate spiritual truths to children sometimes because it's difficult to be on the same page and think the way that children and teenagers think sometimes. One father was driving his family home after church and he asked his son, a young son, he said, son, what you learn in Sunday school today? And the boy said, we learned about Moses leading the children of Israel across the Red Sea. And the dad was really impressed that the son would remember what the lesson was actually about. And so he decided to press a little further. He said, son, tell me about that. Tell me the story. And his son said, well, dad, first of all, Moses built a pontoon bridge across the Red Sea. And then they got the people of Israel over and he looked back and he saw the Egyptians coming. He owed in some F-16s to blow up the bridge. And his father said, son, is that the way your teacher told you that story? Is that what she really said? And he said, not dad, but the way she said it, you'd never believe. Ah, kids, there are challenges, aren't they? And being a dad is a real challenge. Maybe enough, one of the greatest challenges that we face as fathers is loving our children. More specifically, demonstrating that love, showing that love to our children. Maybe the greatest need beyond your spiritual example for your children is to demonstrate love to them, for them to know that you love them as their father. And somehow that's more difficult for us men to do. We're going to be looking at a number of verses today, most of which will be on the screen. But I do want us to look at this one and open your Bible to it in Psalm 103. I'm going to use as our text to frame our thoughts and challenges to fathers today. Psalm 103 13, and there are actually some other verses in this Psalm we'll look at. It's the reason why I want us to open our Bibles to this passage. Psalm 103 verse 13 says, as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. Notice how the love of our father, our God, is compared to the love of a human father. The two are parallel, the two are equal in a sense. The two are designed to mirror one another. And so you actually could flip this around and you actually could say our example in loving our children is the example of our father. If God says, I love you as my child, like a human father loves his children, then we could say the opposite is also true. Our example of how to love our children is the example of our heavenly father. Now I know what some of you may be thinking. You may be thinking, well, I love my kids, but the question this morning is, are you showing it? Are you expressing it? Do they know that you love them? Sometimes our view of masculinity gets in the way a little bit. That view of that tough, unrelenting, nothing's going to move me, nothing's going to shake me. View of masculinity gets in the way of the more tender side of showing, demonstrating love to our children. One of my favorite all-time movies is October Sky. I love it because it's a West Virginia story. It's a true story. It's the story of Homer Hickam and his growing up in coldwood, West Virginia. And after the Russians launched Sputnik, he became enamored with the idea of becoming a rocket scientist and began to learn with some of his school buddies what that meant and how to build a rocket. And they started shooting off rockets. But really the story is much more than the true story of Homer Hickam and his friends in pursuing a dream outside of coldwood. The story really is a father-son story. And that's the part that grips me the most. Because in the story, the father, John Hickam, is struggling trying to understand his son. You see, his feeling is, as everybody's in coldwood was in the late 50s, sons grow up to follow in the footsteps of their fathers. And it's an honorable profession to go into the minds. That's what you should do, son. And because his son has this dream that would take him far from coldwood and far from the minds, his father takes that as a personal rejection. A personal rejection of his way of life and of the honorable hard work he did as a superintendent of that mind. They have trouble being on the same page. They have trouble relating to each other. And you can sense through the whole movie that John Hickam is struggling to show support for his son and to show his son that he really loves him. Late in the story, John Hickam has just, or excuse me, Homer Hickam has just come back from the National Science Fair competition where he's been awarded with his buddies first place on the national scale. And right after the award is given, a lot of people congratulating him and at a way boy, way to go and that kind of thing. And he's shaking a lot of hands and he doesn't realize till afterwards one of the hands he has shaken was one of his inspirations for pursuing this goal. And that was the scientist, Werner von Braun. He comes home to coldwood, gets off the bus, and there's a group of town folk there waiting to greet him and honor him and celebrate what has happened, but his father is not among them. And on the way home, his mother is driving him home. He sees his dad at the entrance to the mine. And he asks his mother to stop the car. And the following interaction takes place between father and son. Let's watch it. Hey, dear. Hey, Homer, I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate what you did for me. I know it wasn't easy for you, so thank you. Well, shooting off our last rocket day at 5 o'clock, so I can come see you. I got a lot of work to do. All right. Well, just not out of ask. Here you met your big hero. You didn't even know it. Look, I know you and me don't exactly see eye to eye out certain things. I mean, we don't see eye to eye on just about anything. But, babe, I come to believe that I got it in me to be somebody in this world. And it's not because I'm so different from you either, because I'm the same. I mean, I can be just as hard-headed and just as tough. I only hope I can be as good a man as one. Let me show you. Dr. Ron Brown's a great scientist. But he isn't my hero. I just feel the tension there. He wants to show his son. He's happy for what happened. He wants to show an interest like the other men from the mind wanted to see the metal. He wants to tell him somehow. He loves him. He just doesn't know how to do it. He doesn't know how to relate. And there are lots of dads like that. Maybe a lot sitting here this morning. If the Bible says that our fathers love, our Heavenly Father's love, is like a human father's love. If those two are supposed to be like each other, then let's flip that formula around this morning. Now let's take a look at our Heavenly Father's love and find out what that says to us as fathers as human fathers about how to love our children. What we're going to examine this morning is this. As fathers, we need to show our love for our children just like God shows His love for us. And how does He show His love for us? How should we show our love to our children? Well first of all, if we're going to be like God, the Father, in showing His love and in showing our love for our children, tell them, tell them if you want your kids to know you love them, tell them. And sometimes that's the hardest thing in the world for a dad to do. What we need to understand is that God over and over again tells us that He loves us in the Word. He's not ashamed to do that. In this very chapter, I want you to notice the number of times He does that. Look at verse 2, Psalm 103, verse 2, praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit. Now notice this, and crowns you with love and compassion. Notice if you will, verse 8, the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love, verse 11. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him. We already saw verse 13, as the Father has compassion on His children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. And then look at verse 17. But from everlasting to everlasting, the Lord's love is with those who fear Him and His righteousness with their children's children. But it's not only this chapter where God says, I love you. Many many times in the word, He tells us that. Look at these verses on the screen, John 3, 16, very familiar verse, God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life. And what about Romans 5, 8, where God says, but God demonstrates His love for us, His own love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And then that great passage in 1 John chapter 4, all about God's love, 1 John 4 verses 8 through 10, whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us. He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Over and over again, God tells us that He loves us, and He showed us that love by sending His Son Jesus to die for our sins, so that through faith and Christ we might become God's children. We might be a part of His family. God tells us 117 times in the Bible, God tells us of His love for us. Over and over again, God is not ashamed to say it. He's not ashamed for us to know, I love you. And it's important for your children to hear that. One of the common complaints that you hear from adults, as you talk with them about their problems and so forth, is you know, I never got a hug from my dad. I never, one time, ever heard my dad tell me, I love you. People carry that into adulthood with them, and it can cause all kinds of issues. You say, wait a second, my kids ought to know that, my kids know I love them, look at what I do. I work hard, I provide for them the song that Jerry saying talks about that. There is more to showing love and demonstrating love than just giving them things, than just providing a good living for them. They need to hear it, they need to have you say to them, I love you. You know guys what it's like when the foreman or the boss or the supervisor at work sits down with you and tells you what a good job you're doing. I mean it's one thing to kind of wonder and think and maybe catch subtle clues here and there that you're doing okay, but when you actually hear him say it, that means a lot, doesn't it? Your kids need that much more than you do. They need to hear that you love them. And just like our heavenly Father is not too big and too high to come down and say, I love you. And over and over again, tell us that about his love for us. We need to do the same thing as that. If we want to love like God loves us, tell them. Secondly, listen to them. Listen to them. God listens to us. If we're going to look at how God demonstrates his love for us, God listens to us. Look at these verses in Psalm 116. Psalm 116 verses 1 and 2. I love the Lord. Now here's the reason why the psalmist says, for he heard my voice, he heard my cry for mercy because he turned his ear to me. I will call on him as long as I live. Now there's a lot of great instruction for parents in that verse. If again, our love is to mirror the love of our Father. Notice three times God says, I listen to you. I hear you. He says, the psalmist says, he heard my voice. He heard my cry for mercy. And he turned his ear to me. The idea is focus listening. He turned his ear to me. He focused on my need. We need to hear our children like the Father hears us. Listening to what they have to say. Focusing our attention on listening to what they have to say. And notice that because of this, notice the psalmist response. Two things. He says, I love the Lord because three times. He says, he heard my voice. He heard my cry for mercy. He turned his ear to me. I love him because of that. You want your children to love you? Maybe you need to start listening to them. Maybe you need to start hearing them out. Maybe you need to start listening to their little problems and their little issues in life. And notice the psalmist says, secondly, because he turned his ear to me, the response that I have, the feeling I have in my heart is I will call on him as long as I live. You see, the relationship is developed and continues. And the confidence that he can continue to call on God comes because he heard me. He listened to me. Father's we need to listen to our children and how we listen to them is very important. Listening with patience, with focus, with understanding, not impatiently, not from behind the newspaper, not when we're watching ESPN. But focused listening to them. I remember reading the story of a young lady whose parents were upset about her marriage plans and were letting her know it very clearly. And she said to them, you've always been too busy to talk to me. You were too busy to talk with me when I was in school and had problems when I had difficulties with friends about my major in college. Why is it that now you really want to talk with me and you really want to listen to me? You've never listened to me before. And her dad said, but this is the most important decision of your life. Come on, now listen to me. She said, dad, when I was 10 years old, the most important decision in my life was who to invite to my slumber party. When I was 13 years old, the most important decision in my life was whether or not I should color my hair. When I was 15 years old, the most important decision in my life was whether or not I ought to try out for cheerleader. You didn't have time to listen to me then. Why should you start now? That's just point. We need to listen to our children at whatever stage and face of life they are and recognize that the issues that are important to them may not seem very important to us, but they are life changing to them. They're critical to them. How many times I have heard, how many times maybe I have said, when the child speaks to a parent talking about some little bump or bruise or scrape or a little problem at school or a problem with a friend, just wait till you get in the real world. Wait till you have some real problems. Come on, grow up. That's not what a child needs to hear. The child needs to know that you understand that you're listening, that you're hearing where they are and what they're struggling with. God listens to us and the response of the Psalmist was, I love him for that and I will call on him the rest of my life. The relationship is growing and it's intense because God listens. God listens. Do you listen as a dad? Do you want to show love like God shows love? Listen to them. Thirdly, if you want to love your children like God loves us, forgive them. Forgive them. Again, look at the model. The example, God forgives us. The Bible makes that so clear. Look at this verse, Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 32. Be kind and compassionate to one another. Forgiving each other just as Christ, God forgave you. Notice how God forgave us. God forgives us in a kind and compassionate way because that's the way Paul says to the Ephesians, we ought to be toward each other and forgive each other because God's forgiven us the same way. Pretender heartedly, kindly, compassionately, God has forgiven us. But notice, He's also forgiven us completely. Look at Colossians 2 on the screen, verses 13 and 14. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness which stood against us and condemned us. He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. What a forceful declaration of God's complete forgiveness. God doesn't hold anything against you. He has completely forgiven you of all that you've done, all that you ever will do. If you are in Christ, if you know Jesus, everything has been forgiven in terms of your relationship with Him. Now some people get confused over the idea of the Bible saying God does not remember our equities. What it really says is God does not remember them against us. God has all knowledge, God has omniscient. He can't forget anything. He can't wipe anything from His mind. He remembers. He knows, but He never holds it against us. He never remembers it against us. Again, He never uses it against us. He knows it over us. When you are in Christ, when you know Jesus as your Savior, everything is forgiven. Your record before God is wiped completely clean. The Bible calls that justification. The fact that you are declared absolutely and perfectly righteous before a holy God. The only way God can do that is to forgive you of everything and take it off your record. Is there something you're holding against one of your children? Is there something that has happened that you're holding against them? You're not forgiving them. You haven't spoken. You haven't tried to make reconciliation. I understand the issues of both parties being involved and all of that. But if you made any effort or has that child come to you and expressed the fact that they're sorry for what they did and you're still holding it against them, that's wrong. It's unbiblical that is not like the love of our Father. Now Paul was talking about all believers doing that and practicing that with each other, that we should never hold stuff against each other and hold it over each other. But certainly that's true in the family. Children can do crazy things. They can make them mistakes in life. They can be guilty of incredible sin. Just like we are as parents. And we need to hold them accountable when they are still under our responsibility to train and correct and so forth. We also need to forgive them like God forgave us. If you're holding something against one of your children, you need to learn to forgive them, not to bring it up again, not to hold it over them, not to maintain distance because of the way you've been hurt. Perfect example of that and perfect example of God's love for us is the story of the prodigal son. Really Jesus never intended the focus to be on the prodigal son. As Jesus told the story in Luke 15, there were three parts to one story, all of which were designed to illustrate God's love for lost people. And so the real focus of the story of the prodigal son is not the son at all. It's the Father. It's really the story of the loving Father. That's really what the story is about. The son has taken his part of the inheritance, walked out on his dad, wasted it in sinful, immoral living. But now he's come to the end of himself and he's come home seeking his Father's forgiveness. And if his Father will even let him stay as a servant, he'll take that. How does his Father respond to that? Well you don't have any idea how much you hurt me. How you drug this family's name through the mud. You will pay for that. Does he hold it against him? Does he hold it over him? Does he grudgingly accept him back and never speak to him? No. No. The illustration of God's love for sinners, which becomes the pattern for our love for our children. It's the father's love that the Father runs to meet him, throws his arms around him, plants kisses on his cheek, gives him sandals on his feet, which was in that culture the way of saying, you are my son. You're not a servant. You will be my son. Put the robe of a favored position on him, gives him a feast, puts a ring on his finger to show he is back in the family. There's nothing held against him. He's full and free forgiveness. Contrast David and Absalom in the Old Testament. Absalom has murdered one of his half brothers. And in some sense, there's some justice there. We might think it was the right thing to do because that brother had violated Absalom's sister. But obviously it was sin. It was the wrong thing to do. Absalom fled for his life. And David is finally counseled by the prophet to bring him back and forgive him. David does bring him back, but doesn't speak to him for two years. Is that forgiveness? No. And it created resentment in the heart of Absalom to the point that eventually Absalom would rebel and take the kingdom away from his dad, hated his dad. You see the two contrasts between a father who's willing to welcome the prodigal with every sign that he is a part of the family and he loves him. And one who says, I'll make you pay for what you've done. Forgive them, fathers. Forgive them. If you want any kind of relationship, I plead with you, forgive them. Fourthly, if you want to love your children like God loves us, respect them. Respect them. Now, I'm talking about it in the sense that you treat their ideas and problems as important that you do not belittle them, that you do not make them feel like their problems are really not that big. Some day they'll really understand what real problems are. Lower yourself to where they are, understand how they feel, see life through their eyes. Because that's exactly what God has done for you. One of the reasons for God becoming man in the person of his son Jesus was for this very reason. Obviously, the main reason why Jesus came to this earth was to inhabit a human body so that he might offer that body his life as a sacrifice for our sins. One of the sidebar reasons for Jesus coming was to experience human life so that we would know he understands. So he came down to our level. Now God is omniscient. God knows everything about human life. God knows more about your life than you know about it because he knows all things, all things, including exactly how you feel, exactly what you're going through. He knows that by virtue of his nature. But he wanted us to understand that he has experienced human life. Look at these verses in Hebrews 2, which is exactly what the writer of Hebrews says. For this reason, he, speaking of Christ, had to be made like them, speaking of the human race, fully human in every way. What reason, sir? Here it is, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God and that he might make a tonement for the sins of the people next verse because he himself suffered when he was tempted. He is able to help those who are being tempted. In other words, he understands human life. Same thing in Hebrews 4, verse 15, for we do not have a high priest who is unable, notice these next words, unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who's been tempted in every way just as we are. Yet he did not sin. The idea is that Jesus experienced the full range of human life. He knows what it is like to undergo hardship and Jesus experienced the full range. He did not just drop onto planet earth as a fully mature adult. He knows what it is like to be a baby. He knows what it is like to be a little toddler. He knows what it is like to be a two year old. He knows what it is like to be a preschooler, a little child. He knows what it is like in middle school. He knows what it is like as a teenager. He knows what it is like as a young adult seeking to establish yourself in your vocation. He knows what it is like then to grow into full maturity of adulthood. The prime of your life. He knows that by experience, he has experienced that he can sympathize with our weaknesses. Why? It is not because he stayed up in heaven and said, I understand. He came down and lived it. So that we know he understands. We can see that he understands. He came down to our level. There is a verse in Psalms that says God stoops down to hear the prayers of these people. Stoops down. He comes down to us. Comes down to our level. And that is what God is saying. We need to do. Our love for our children is to be like his love for us. Then we need to come down to the level of our children. And when they are six years old and their greatest problem is some little deal at school or a neighborhood problem with a kid, we need to understand that and respect how they're feeling and not belittle them for what they're feeling. Some time ago I read the story of Kathleen Kilpatrick who is in the U.S. Department of Interior, a special assistant to the secretary of the interior. She tells this story about herself when she was growing up. She moat, she sighed, she wandered around the house with the look of an injured puppy, sometimes bursting with tears. When her worried parents questioned her, she would answer, it's nothing. How could she explain? She was desperately in love for the first time and the object of her adoration didn't even know she existed. Finally, her father sat down, took her by the hand, tenderly questioned her until he learned the cause of her sadness. Gently, simply, he talked with her of life and love. He comforted her. She was six years old. Here's what she says as an adult. I've never forgotten that moment. How often I've thought back and wondered that he didn't just laugh at me. Instead, he treated me with dignity and concern for how deeply I felt. Remember that to that six-year-old, that's the greatest crisis in life they've ever faced. And to you, you know that they're going to get over it and they're going to be fine and it's easy to make a light of it and just kind of make fun of it. I will get over it. But know what they need is respect. To be able for you to come down like God has come down to us and say, I understand what it's like to be two years old. I understand what it's like to be six years old. I understand what it's like to be thirteen. Respect them. Number five, if you want to love God or love your children like God loves us, discipline them. Discipline them. God does that for us. If we are his children, God shows he loves us by his discipline. In fact, the Bible makes it very clear. That's one of the ways God shows his love for us. Is that he disciplines us? It's very clear. He brews twelve. Look at these verses. And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father, addresses his son? It says, my son, do not make a light of the Lord's discipline. And do not lose heart when he rebukes you because the Lord disciplines the one he loves. And he chastens everyone he accepts as his son. In dear hardship as discipline, God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father. If you're not disciplined and everyone undergoes discipline, then you are not legitimate, but not true sons and daughters at all. What he's saying is one of the evidences that you're really a child of God is the fact that he does discipline you. It's one of the ways he shows his love. And so if we're going to show our love for our children, like God shows his love for us, we need to discipline them. Please understand, I'm not talking about angry, unfair, abusive punishment. I'm not talking about that. There are proper and improper ways to discipline and correct. But I'm talking about the kind of discipline that is motivated by love, that is done in justice, that communicates compassion and concern. And you love your children by caring enough about what they're going to be and how they're going to turn out to do the hard work of discipline and correction and training in their early years to make sure they learn the difference between right and wrong and they begin developing some character that takes discipline. Proverbs is clear on that. Proverbs 1324 says this, whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is critical or careful to discipline them. Again, I'm not talking about the use of the hand, I'm not talking about angry outbursts, I'm not talking about going after a kid to slap them around, I'm not talking about abusive kind of discipline. I'm talking about a carefully measured response in an appropriate way to the wrong behavior of a child. How that should be done is a whole message in itself. I plan to do a series on parenting sometime in the next four or five years and we'll get to that. Hang around. Okay? Hang around. I remember hearing Bill Cosby one time talk about, said he spanked his child one time and he had a child psychologist telling him that's Stone Age discipline and Bill Cosby's response was yeah, kids paid more attention to Stone Age too. He's probably got a point. Discipline them. It means you use, make sure it's appropriate but don't be afraid to discipline your children. We live in an age where the children call the shots, the children run the homes. They tell their parents where they want to go out there, they tell their parents where they want to go to school, they tell their parents what they want to do, what they don't want to do and the parents meet and comply. Remember we teaching our children when we provide no leadership and no correction and no discipline. Discipline them. If you really love them, you're going to want them to turn out having some kind of character and that will only come through discipline and training. Here's the last one. If you want to love your children like God loves you, spend time with them. Did you know that God wants to spend time with you? This is one of the most mind-blowing things you'll ever encounter in the scriptures. God wants to spend time with you. Look at this verse in John chapter 4, verse 23. I think one of the most amazing verses on worship in all the Bible. John chapter 4, verse 23, it's not there. Okay, we've lost it. John 4, 23, Jesus is talking to the woman at the well and he basically says this, for time will come and now come, it's there. Time is coming and has now come, just like I said. When the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, now notice this next phrase, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. Did you know that God wanted to spend this time with you here this morning? He's seeking the kind of worshipers who will come to Him and worship Him in Spirit and truth. He wants that. He longs for that time with you. Jesus made this incredible statement in his prayer in John chapter 17, verse 24, when he's praying, he says, Father, notice this, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory, the glory you've given me because you love me before the creation of the world. Isn't that an amazing prayer? He's getting ready to go to the cross. It's the evening before he dies and his prayer is, I want those you've given me to be with me in heaven. But maybe the most amazing one to me, and I just really noticed this week when I was looking at this passage again in Revelation 21, John is beginning to describe the wonders of the New Jerusalem and the New Heaven. Here's how he starts. He says, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I want you to notice what he says next. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, now this is God speaking and this is the first thing God says about walking us to the new heaven and new earth. He says this, look, God's dwelling place is now among the people and he will dwell with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. Now he goes on to talk about, there will be no more pain, no more death, no more tears, no more sorrow. That's wonderful about heaven. He talks about the city and the beauty of the streets of gold and the beauty of the pearl and the gates and the foundations and the walls, all of that he will talk about. But that's not the first thing he wanted to tell us. The first thing he wanted to tell us is, you're going to be with me. You're going to be with me. God wants us to spend an eternity with him. That absolutely blows me away. That is an amazing thought that God wants me to be there with him and he's looking forward to that day more than I'm looking forward to it. You spend time with your kids. You say, John, you don't know my life, you don't know my work, you don't know my schedule. Well, maybe not. But listen, I know what it's like. I grew up in a home where my dad worked long hours. He had a very responsible position on the railroad. He worked six days a week, 12 hours a day, from six in the morning to six in the evening. Then got up real early on Sunday morning before he brought us to church for Sunday school and morning service and evening service and Wednesday, by the way. In fact, he got off just in time to meet us here on Wednesday. But before we went to church on Sunday morning, he went in for two hours just to check to make sure all the trains were running right. He was responsible for all the train movement on this division of the railroad. It was a very stressful and hard job and he worked very hard in long hours. So I know what it's like. But there's something else I will never forget about my dad Sunday afternoons. Now there were some evenings like this as well. But Sunday afternoons I will never forget. How did my dad spend Sunday afternoons? He certainly could have used and deserved an app. He could have caught up on a lot of his reading. My dad was a voracious reader. He could have done a lot of things, could have gone fishing, could have done whatever he wanted to do. But he spent time with us. And I was the only boy so I got a lot of the time with dad on Sunday afternoon. I remember especially as a young young man, young child. I still have the catchers mitt that we used. Dad would be the catcher and so, okay John, you're the pitcher. And I would throw those strikes in there once every ten or twelve pitches. We had a blast or he'd throw the football and I would take off down the yard and cut out the side yard. He'd throw it over the corner of the house. It was great. It was cool. I had no idea then what that meant to him, the sacrifice it meant to him. I've only come to appreciate that as an adult. That's a father. It's one of my special memories of my dad. He didn't have time for that but he made time. Lots of other things he could have been doing for himself and he deserved every bit of it that he took that time. And I'll never forget vacations. We only had one or two weeks, usually one week in the summer at Myrtle Beach like everybody else in West Virginia. Dad walked with us on the beach, played beanbag games with us, played squirt gun battles with us. It was all about family during that time. I'll never forget it. So I know what it's like to be in a position where you work a long hours and you don't have a lot of time to give your kids but what time you do have. It is focused on them. That's the way my dad did it. Someone came up with the five worst ways to spend time with your kids. Number five, serve as a human quarter machine at the video arcade. Number four, have the NFL football game on while you're playing table games with your family. Number three, read the paper while you help them with their homework. Number two, suggest you take a nap together on Sunday afternoon. And number one, take them to the office on Saturday and have them color while you work. Oh, I'm spending time with them, right? No. I want to challenge us all as dads. Don't live to regret. Don't live to regret the fact that you didn't show your children love, like God showed you love. I want to challenge you, tell them, listen to them, forgive them, respect them, discipline them, spend time with them. We began the message with a clip from October Sky and right after the scene in which we saw earlier, Homer and his buddies do go out to shoot off their last rocket and a whole group of the town folk are there to celebrate with them. It's kind of a coming home party for everybody. Homer begins to thank the people who helped them get to where they were. Thanks people in the town. Thanks the welder at the mine for helping them make the rocket. Thanks teacher, Ms. Riley, who's dying with cancer. For being the inspiration to do the science and the math, it was needed to understand what they were doing. Then there are a couple of other folks he wants to thank, but his dad's already told him he's going to be too busy to be there. He's never seen one of his son's rockets go off. Notice what happens next. And finally, I'd like to dedicate this rocket to my mom and two. You know, it won't fly unless somebody pushes the button. It's yours if you want it. One, two, three, four, three, two, one. It's going to go from mom. It's going to go from mom. It's going to go from mom. It's going to go from mom. He finally figured out how to say I love you. Finally found the time. The arm around the shoulder. The knowing look of its okay son, chase your dream. I love you. Maybe there's some dads here this morning that need to find a way to show how much you love your children. Son or daughter. Maybe you need to go home and just let them know. Say it. Show it. Maybe you need to make a phone call. Maybe you need to go make a visit. Maybe you need to do some forgiving. Don't come to the end of your life. And regret. Regret. The fact you never let them know. Let's pray. Father, thank you that you have shown us your love and you have shown us how to love. We pray that we will learn from the best father of all what it means to love our children like you have loved us. Oh, how much we fail. How often we fail to love like you love. Help us to take these principles from your word today that we have seen about your love for us and apply them to how we need to love our children. I pray that you would work in the hearts of fathers today to break down barriers to subdue pride. To do away with the lack of diligence and demonstrating love for our families. Lord, bring reconciliation today in some families. Bring forgiveness to some families. Bring just a renewal and rejoicing in the love that has been shown and a refreshing time of showing that again. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.