How To Be A Good Father

… or a disruption in your busy schedule. Don’t just give them your leftovers.

Enjoy being a father … and make sure that they enjoy having you as their father. Spend some time on the floor with them, giving them horsy rides … take them to fun places, doing fun things … laugh … play … give them some memories of Dad being FUN to be around.

HOW TO BE A GOOD FATHER … Enjoy your children.

4.- LISTEN TO YOUR CHILDREN

Give them your undivided attention … not with one eye on the TV and the other eye on them. When they have a problem … when they are worried … when they are sad … when they are lonely … they don’t need cartoons, or a video game, or their best friends Dad … they need YOU!

Get involved with your children, and know what’s going on in their everyday life. Listen to them … even when they‘re not saying anything, they are speaking volumes. Be the kind of father that they can come to and say anything that’s on their mind … without being criticized for it.

If you listen to them when they’re small and their problems are small … and then they’ll come to you when they’re bigger, and their problems are bigger.

Proverbs 1:5 – “A wise man will hear and increase in learning …”

HOW TO BE A GOOD FATHER … Listen to your children.

5.- PROVIDE FOR YOUR CHILDREN

1 Tim. 5:8 – “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever.”

Even the LOST provide for their families … BUT … you can’t be a GOOD FATHER and not provide for your children.

I don’t mean that you have to give them everything they want … that’s 1 of the WORST things you can do. We are living in a generation of children whose parents have robbed their children of the blessing of WANTING, WORKING & WAITING for material things. We have spoiled our children by giving them INSTANT SATISFACTION … and they will carry on this tradition by charging whatever they want and accumulating enormous credit card debt.

Too many fathers think they can BUY OFF their children with THINGS … and thus relieve themselves of the guilt for not being the kind of father they ought to be … that they can BUY their way out of Biblical fatherhood.

My father didn’t make much money when I was growing up … we had to prime the pump to get our water, walk 100’ to the outhouse, and took a bath in a wash tub in the kitchen in hot water heated on a wood stove. I never went to a barbershop until after I was married. We didn’t have a telephone until I was in Jr. High School.

Did my Daddy PROVIDE for me? You bet he did! He provided me with everything I needed, and taught me the blessing of WANTING, WORKING, and WAITING for material things. PROVIDING for your children by giving them TOO MUCH, is just as bad as NOT PROVIDING for them by giving them TOO LITTLE.

HOW TO BE A GOOD FATHER … provide for your children.

6.- TRAIN YOUR CHILDREN

Ephesians 6:4 – “And, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger; but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

We must teach and train our children to respect authority in the home … or they won’t respect authority at school or in the world. We need to teach our children that there are BOUNDARIES … rules & regulations … a line that they will not cross.

Your children are going to test you. They are going to see