"And the fathers, do not be angering your children but rather be nourishing them in instruction and admonition of [the] Lord.’
-The command for dads here is to be doing the exact same thing for their kids that they are to be doing for their wives - be nourishing them constantly, regularly, daily even. Be feeding them and helping them to grow, not just physically, providing food and other necessaries, but spiritually, feeding their hearts from the Word of God, teaching them about Him and instructing them how to follow and live for Him and admonishing them to do so and to love Him with their whole heart.
-Sadly, in the aftermath of the fall, this relationship is also broken and cursed. Dads tend to not nourish their children, spiritually, if at all. They’ve simply abdicated their responsibility, all too often way too absent. Mom, or the grandparents, are left to do the heavy lifting. The Sunday School teacher and the youth group leader wind up doing whatever nourishing takes place. Dad is gone, altogether abandoning his kids (and wife), or he is barely present, rarely home or engaging with the kids, more inclined towards work and golf and tv and other forms of familial infidelity. And when he is home, when he does engage, it is all too often with too heavy a hand, harsh, impatient, uncompassionate, and angry - venting the rage residing in his heart, spawned there by his own dad before him. Wounded dads wounding their own kids, a vicious cycle played out and repeated in many a home. Your own dad surely messed up. He hurt you somehow. He lashed out from his own place of woundedness. He was absent. He was unengaged. He was shut down emotionally. Maybe he was gone altogether. But there is hope. The cycle can be broken. And it begins with me. One dad, taking up the mantle of priest. Yes, I am the spiritual leader of my family, my wife and my kids. I nourish their souls with the Word of God. I first feed my own soul, feasting regularly on God’s Word, sitting at the feet of Jesus and lingering before the throne of heaven, finding sustenance for my soul and for that of my entire family. And then I set the table and prepare a feast for them. Man up, men - let the Lord take and heal your own woundedness and let Him shore up and overcome your brokenness, let Him feed you and nourish you and empower you so that you can engage with your kids and your wife and regularly help lead them heavenward from a place of Christ-like humilty and gentleness. Yes, just like Jesus (Matthew 11.29). Be a glimpse of Jesus for them every day. Help them learn about the Lord every day, by your words and by your example.
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