June 22, 2009 - High Expectations

Many times as a coach one is faced with trying to figure out what line-up is going to work. The coach is simply trying to find who is ready to step up – and it is great when that comes from an unexpected source. I love seeing when a benchwarmer turns hero. But I also have some players that I simply expect to produce!

Yesterday (Father’s Day) I was honored to share the morning message at a church in Florida. As I prepared for the message throughout the week, I continued to feel the need to exhort fathers to “step up.”

Our society does not have great expectations of dads. Television typically portrays dads as beer guzzling, incompetent buffoons. (And Christian dads are usually looked at as weak weenies.) Even in the church I think we have lowered expectations. All we/society seem to care about is if the dads protect and provide – and those are marks of good fathering. Yet…

I think there is so much more Biblically that needs to be expected: things like praying for our kids; preparing our kids through teaching them the Word and disciplining them; praising them; prodding them to serve the Lord; etc. Dads, the Scriptures call us to be primary trainers of our kids!

Deuteronomy 6: 4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Note that the job is not for the government, the schools, or even the church. It is parental! It is great when those places are in harmony with the teachings but they are not the primary means to teaching our children.

I came across a few great quotes about fathers.

The father who does not teach his son his duties is equally guilty with the son who neglects them. - Confucius

If a son is uneducated, his dad is to blame. - Chinese Proverb

"One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters." - English Proverb - George Herbert

OK Dads, step up! The expectations for you are high according to God. He wants you to be a starter in your child’s life – not sitting the bench expecting others do the job!