Life. One minute we’re a teenager and the next minute we’re raising one. Don’t you remember being a carefree teen driving our social lives into action with the windows down and the radio up? Mom and dad helped with gas, provided our every meal and did our laundry. Some of us worked because we could, not because we had to. We worked out because we could, not because we had to (ugh). Then off to college where the great big world awaited, exposing us to different perspectives, new pedagogies, opportunities for endless mistakes, and possibly our faith sacrificed on the altar of compromise. Next, we navigated careers, marriage, sleepless nights with babies, toddlers, teens challenging our battered brains, all the while plowing full steam ahead on this journey called life. Extemporaneous challenges can await at each new turn, plowing us right off a cliff if we refuse to process life as it progresses. We’ve seen the wreckage countless times--often tempted to join debauchery’s debris--for none of us are immune.

Father. Simple to become. Really hard to be…at least in the fullest and best sense of the word: a critical constituent in the raising (bringing up, rearing, nurturing, looking after, caring for, taking care of, providing for, tending, protecting, cherishing, education and training) of a child.

So much of our lives and society is compartmentalized and segmented. It’s easy to think, “Worship happens at church; pastors are responsible for biblical teaching and discipleship. Learning about the world happens at school; teachers are responsible for disseminating knowledge. Experiencing relationships happens at home and with friends; parents are responsible for teaching their children about love, grace, and forgiveness.” While these assumptions and responsibilities are in part correct, they do not fully represent how Scripture prescribes our lives.