Bible Study Book Availability Update 12/2/2024

Yesterday a friend posted something on social media about candy corn. Of course, it’s getting to that time of year. Candy corn brings back such sweet memories for me. When I was a little girl, my daddy would get down on his hands and knees and let me ride on his back like he was a horse. I would feed him candy corn. This made me start thinking about all the fun things that my daddy did with me. A flying Jenny. Spraying the driveway with the water house when it was way below freezing weather with no snow so we could have what I can only describe now as an ice slide on a crosstie end. When it was cold enough for the pond to freeze over safely, he pulled us (friends included) on a block around the pond surface. Jumping boards. Bag swings. Tire swings. Trips to amusement parks. Travel to see the majestic beauty of God’s creation. Fun word games to play together in the car as we traveled. (before screens to keep children quiet.) Unsuccessfully trying to help his most unathletic daughter learn enough skills not to be embarrassed in PE.  I know that my daddy was 2 standard deviations above the mean on the daddy scale. I honestly believe he was the absolute best daddy. Not only was he so much fun, he took his responsibility to bring me up learning about God very seriously. He read  Bible stories and from the Bible to me way before I was able to remember it. He also helped me grow academically. I can remember sitting on a quilt in front of the fireplace, eating fried peanuts and popcorn, and drinking RC Cola while learning math facts and how to count money, or as I got older, sitting at the kitchen table doing algebra or geometry. And he loved me unconditionally. Because of who he was as a man, I had a glimpse of the love of a Father who would send His Son to die as a substitutionary sacrifice for my sinful state, A Savior who would willingly take my sin to the cross making a way for sinful people to approach His Throne with confidence, God who took human form to share in the same temptations that we face. God, who loves us more than any earthly daddy could, who can bring us peace and joy greater than all the fun things my daddy did for me, who is the Giver of all knowledge, greater than math facts, or geometry and algebra.  

I promise not to go on a rant about the decline of society and our moral compasses because of single parent homes, but I do want to talk about how important fathers are to their children. 

Ephesians 6:4

Amplified Bible

4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger [do not exasperate them to the point of resentment with demands that are trivial or unreasonable or humiliating or abusive; nor by showing favoritism or indifference to any of them], but bring them up [tenderly, with lovingkindness] in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Fathers responsibility is to bring up their children with love and tenderness, discipline and instruction in the Lord. Think about that for a minute. That’s a tremendous responsibility with longreaching results. I think my sons are the kind of daddies they saw in their grandpa and their dad.

Listen to what the angel says to Zechariah about John the Baptist.

Luke 1:13-17

Amplified Bible

13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, because your petition [in prayer] was heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him [a]John. 14 You will have great joy and delight, and many will rejoice over his birth, 15 for he will be great and distinguished in the sight of the Lord; and will never drink wine or liquor, and he will be filled with and empowered to act by the Holy Spirit while still in his mother’s womb. 16 He will turn many of the sons of Israel back [from sin] to [love and serve] the Lord their God. 17 It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous [which is to seek and submit to the will of God]—in order to make ready a people [perfectly] prepared [spiritually and morally] for the Lord.”

John’s purpose and responsibility was to go before Jesus the Messiah, turning the hearts of the fathers back to their children to make them ready to receive the message of God’s love for us in sending His Son as a sacrifice for our sin. A generation of people who have been raised by dads who have turned their hearts to their children, who show love and tenderness, and who discipline and instruct their children in the Lord results in people whose hearts are prepared to accept God’s gift of redemption.

Colossians 3:21

Amplified Bible

21 Fathers, do not provoke or irritate or exasperate your children [with demands that are trivial or unreasonable or humiliating or abusive; nor by favoritism or indifference; treat them tenderly with lovingkindness], so they will not lose heart and become discouraged or unmotivated [with their spirits broken].

There is a danger in strictness without love and tenderness. I read a novel this weekend, which I do not recommend. It was weird. But, for my point here, the main character was raised by a “faith healer” who punished her by putting her in the attic with the lights off to remove the evil from her. As a result, she suffered emotionally for years. That is not God’s plan for fathers. (I know this book was fiction, but I also know that there are many fathers who cause trauma to their children that results in long term emotional suffering. We can not be blind to this. We must be open to ministering to these children with love and tenderness as we teach them about the love of our Heavenly Father.)

There is a place in the family for loving discipline, because our Loving Heavenly Father also disciplines us. My daddy most certainly disciplined me, but I never questioned his love for me. Our loving daddies who discipline and instruct us in the Lord are an example of how God disciplines us. We come to understand the Father’s discipline by our daddy’s discipline.

Hebrews 12:7-11

Amplified Bible

7 You must submit to [correction for the purpose of] discipline; God is dealing with you as with sons; for [a]what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 Now if you are exempt from correction and without discipline, in which all [of God’s children] share, then you are illegitimate children and not sons [at all]. 9 Moreover, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we submitted and respected them [for training us]; shall we not much more willingly submit to the Father of [b]spirits, and live [by learning from His discipline]? 10 For our earthly fathers disciplined us for only a short time as seemed best to them; but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. 11 For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems sad and painful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness [right standing with God and a lifestyle and attitude that seeks conformity to God’s will and purpose].

The purpose of discipline is teaching, not punishment. 

Proverbs 22:6

Amplified Bible

6 Train up a child in the way he should go [teaching him to seek God’s wisdom and will for his abilities and talents],

Even when he is old he will not depart from it.

The responsibility of daddies is to live a lifestyle of love for God and obedience to Him, an example for their children to follow. 

Deuteronomy 6:5-7

Amplified Bible

5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and with all your soul and with all your strength [your entire being]. 6 These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be [written] on your heart and mind. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your [a]children [impressing God’s precepts on their minds and penetrating their hearts with His truths] and shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up.

I know it seems like I have been focusing on the dad of the family, and I have, but think about this. Who is the mother? Isn’t she one flesh with the dad? Isn’t she a helpmeet for him? Shouldn’t they stand together in unity in the upbringing of their children? All that scripture teaches about fathers also applies to their mothers. 

My mother was kind, giving, and supportive. I knew that then and I know it now. She was not the fun one, but in her actions I saw her love for me and for others. She was not the one who disciplined me, but I knew she stood behind my daddy completely.  Different personalities does not mean the goal isn’t the same: love and tenderness as the way to instruct and discipline.

Paul described his relationship with the believers in Thessalonica as both mother and father.

1 Thessalonians 2:7-12

Amplified Bible

7 But we behaved gently when we were among you, like a devoted mother tenderly caring for her own children. 8 Having such a deep affection for you, we [a]were delighted to share with you not only God’s good news but also our own lives, because you had become so very dear to us.

9 For you remember, [b]believers, our labor and hardship. We worked night and day [practicing our trade] in order not to be a [financial] burden to any of you while we proclaimed the gospel of God to you. 10 You are witnesses, and so is God, how unworldly and just and blameless was our behavior toward you who believe [in our Lord Jesus Christ]. 11 For you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you just as a father does [in dealing with] his own children, [guiding you] 12 to live lives [of honor, moral courage, and personal integrity] worthy of the God who [saves you and] calls you into His own kingdom and glory.