Happy Father's Day! - June is LIFE Month!

“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:5)

The Courage of a Man

My father had the high cheek bones and red skin of a Cherokee. As Cherokee custom would have it, when he was thirteen years old, my dad's uncle handed him a rifle and told him to walk home from his grandfather's farm in the dark through the woods. What my dad didn't know was that his uncle watched him the entire time to make sure he made it home safely. It was a Cherokee custom of a boy becoming a man. It built my dad's confidence as he pushed through the fear of the dark and noisy woods around him, not knowing he was never in any real danger. What a beautiful picture of what our heavenly Father does with us. God has promised us, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5) We are never out of God's sight or beyond His reach.

Four years later, my dad enlisted at the age of seventeen to fight in WWII. And after WWII, Korea. Then on "Uncle Sam's dime", he went to college until God called him to become a pastor, so he finished a degree as quickly as he could to enroll in seminary. A man of character, commitment, perseverance, and humble strength, how my dad served others in ministry influenced my whole life. There are things we learn from our fathers that a mother could never teach. And the genuine and tender ways my father loved my mother modeled a love too deep for any love story. I held him on a pedestal for many years until he fell off and broke my heart in the process. It's when I realized he couldn't fix everything. And for all that he was he was only a man. And that's when my heart cried for God like I never had before. And God let me find Him. He'd been walking quietly beside me all along and wasn't further away than my voice, or His hand, could reach.

When my children lost their father, it was more than I could stand to go to church on Father's Day. My heart broke for my children because they didn't have a father. In anticipation of Father's Day, my daughter's preschool teacher asked the children to talk about their dads. She would ask me later, "When I asked your daughter who her daddy was, do you know what she said?" I felt myself gasp, what would she say? "She said, 'God'."

The Faith of a Child.

Now people were bringing the little children to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them, and the disciples rebuked those who brought them. But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and told them, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And He took the children in His arms, placed His hands on them, and blessed them. (Mark 10:13-16, KJV)

Her heavenly Father spoiled her, in my opinion. She'd ask Him for things, and He'd just do it for her. Like when she was a teenager wanting a cell phone for her birthday. I couldn't even afford a cheap one. But when I showed up at a cell phone store just to see what they cost, I was handed the best cell phone in the store. "Today they are free," the stranger behind the counter told me, "it's the one all the kids are wanting." When I got home, I handed her the little bag with the bow on it that the stranger had given to me. "This is from your Father," I said, "I just picked it up." And the Christmas I couldn't afford Christmas presents at all, and three families chose our family to bless, so that the presents couldn't all fit under the tree! At the age of seventeen, this same daughter asked me if she could do something she shouldn't do. After a moment, I said, "Ask your Father, and if He says yes, it's alright with me." "Rats," she said, "He already said 'no'."

A father of the fatherless

and a defender of widows

is God in His holy habitation.

God settles the lonely in families;

He leads the prisoners out to prosperity,

but the rebellious dwell in a sun-scorched land. (Psalm 68:5-6)

The Joy of a Father

Our Father is strong and gentle, kind and firm, strict and forgiving, fair and patient. He sings over us (Zephaniah 3:17). And when we ask forgiveness, He forgives (1 John 1:9). He loves to lavish His love on us (1 John 3:1). He defends us (Psalm 94:22). And He gives us what to say in the moment that we need it (Mark 13:11). He corrects us (Jeremiah 10:24). He never lies to us (Psalm 33:4). He replaces shame with praise (Zephaniah 3). He tells us things we couldn't know without Him (Isaiah 48:6). And He has a very advanced sense of humor. (After all, He created humor.)

With a son growing up without a dad, I prayed that God would bring Godly men into his life. Just as my son was reaching his teenage years, God brought into all my children's lives a youth pastor who took them under his wing, challenged them when they needed to be challenged, held them accountable, told them the hard things they needed to hear, and pushed them to be more. He was direct when he needed to be and spoke into their lives. Our pastor, deacons, and other men in the church, in how they treated their wives, children, and included my children at church picnics, hikes, and camping trips, ministered to our family in ways even I may not fully know. God answered a Mama's prayers. Each of them and their spouses are in children, youth, and young adult ministry today.

For all the Godly men who put God first, family second, and others before themselves, thank you. Thank you for making this a better world for all of us. May God richly bless you and give you glimpses here on earth of the rewards awaiting you in heaven. And whether you are a biological father, an adoptive father like our heavenly Father is to us (Romans 8:14-17), or a fatherly mentor, your voice and your example matter. You are influencing others around you who you may not even know. Happy Father's Day!

Luke 1:17

And he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

{Video} Make Dads Great Again (1:30)

Faye Barnhart is a Life Affirming Specialist and Co-Proponent of the Colorado Life Initiative. She raised her children as a single parent and is now married with an adopted special needs son and grandchildren, including a grandbaby who needed life-saving surgery at birth. She accepted Christ as her personal Savior and Lord as a small child and continues her walk with the Lord in daily dependence.