How to Reflect the Character of God to My Family: A Father’s Perspective
How to Reflect the Character of God to My Family
A Father’s Perspective
How can I reflect the character of God to my family? It starts with knowing God’s character. I need to be spending time daily reading the Bible and listening to the Holy Spirit’s guidance and conviction as He molds me more into the image of Jesus. And then, I need to pass that knowledge on to my children. Please allow me to share just three aspects of God’s character and how we can live those out in front of our children each day.
· God wants to be close and to share a world of delight with us.
In Genesis, God not only created a world that was good, but rested humanity in a garden named “delight” and spent time with them. As a dad, I get to experience so many great things through my relationship with my kids - like belly laughs from their silliness, wonder when an unexpectedly caring or insightful sentence leaves my 5-year-old’s mouth, or surprise at myself for getting invested in a magnet-tile train station that I’m building with my 3-year-old. These are moments when I not only get to share love with my kids, but experience how good the world can be when relationships are right. Reflecting on God’s desire to be with us and to enjoy His good world together helps me set my priorities as a parent, especially when my energy is depleted and it feels like a million other things need to be done at work and at home.
* God’s justice is consistent and reliable.
When cries of distress rise to God’s ears throughout the Bible, God hears and responds. God’s consistent character provides the basis of an ongoing relationship with His people. In the Old Testament in particular, God’s firstborn son, Israel (Exodus 4:22) is alternatingly saved by, and subjected to, God’s justice. As a dad, I know I need to be aware of how my consistency impacts my kids’ perception of our family relationships. When my children can see that our family standards exist, not to punish them individually, but to foster and safeguard our life together as a family, it affects the tone and reception of correction. Good family relationships are founded on trust – and this keeps correction from feeling arbitrary, mean-spirited, or like a sheer display of power. In the New Testament, the willingness of God to listen and respond to the cries of His people causes Jesus and His followers to call God “Abba”, or “dad” (see Mark 14:36, Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6).
* God responds to broken relationships with mercy and a way back.
In the parable of the prodigal son, we learn directly from Jesus something of how God the Father comports Himself with His children. The image of the father in the doorway, waiting for his lost son, ready to run out, embrace, and kiss him (Luke 15:20) is one of the most vivid depictions of God’s love in the Bible. In the Old Testament, Moses describes God as a father carrying his son through the wilderness to the doorstep of a promised land (Deuteronomy 1:31), referring to the events of Numbers when Israel was consistently rebellious. God’s mercy in these instances is hard to fathom. Our mercy for our kids, though, has an intuitive basis – we, as human beings, know the patterns of our own wandering hearts and what it is to need mercy. In the words of the hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, I am “prone to wander – Lord, I feel it – prone to leave the God I love”. This is a life experience we know that our kids will have to work through. To share mercy and a way back to a close relationship is likely our most important duty in reflecting the love of God the Father.
These are just three examples of aspects of God’s character that we can live out in our daily lives in front of our children. As you read and study God’s Word, He will reveal more aspects of His character to you and will mold you into the kind of parent He wants you to be.
Keith Johnson is husband to Shannon, his wife of 11 years, and Dad to a 5-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son. Together they enjoy life in Tennessee.