“You just wait until your father gets home!” How many heard that growing up and shivered in dread because dad was the disciplinarian? Yet how many today wish they would hear that because dad never comes home? Despite living by the mantra of “in between the lines there’s a lot of obscurity” we still get stuck in false dilemmas and jump between extremes: fathers are described as too harsh or too soft, when the reality is usually somewhere in between. Fathers who love their children struggle to get the balance right, and all fail from time to time. But at least they come home.

The Baby Boom generation’s effort to deconstruct the traditional family (one mom and one dad) continues its path of destruction, even as current scientific research and reality tell us it is essential for optimal child nurturing. Much of societal degeneration is due to fathers not being around to help shape their children, which harmed their children, who then imposed their misshapen views of reality on the rest of society. It’s a vicious cycle, and society perpetuates it even while recognizing it is the path to failure.

Yesterday we noted how dads shape our view of God, as seen in Psalm 18, wherein David revealed a healthy view of God that must’ve been influenced by his father, Jesse. Today’s Sunday’s Struggles edition of Morning Minutes in the Bible on An American Missionary is about developing a balanced approach as a father and learning how from David’s description of God in Psalm 18:24-27. God approaches each person according to their character and need. He recompenses the righteous with righteousness, the kind with kindness, the blameless with blamelessness, the pure with purity, and the crooked with contradiction. He lifts the afflicted and takes down the abusive.

Notice then the impact having that kind of Father had on David in verses 28-45. God provides light in darkness, courage to take on the enemy, strength to overcome in battle, feet that don’t slip, complete victory over the enemy, and elevation over the nations. But let’s not miss one key statement hidden in verse 35, “Your gentleness makes me great.” That statement gives me chills.

Fathers, we must remember we are our children’s first idea of God. If we love our children, if we want them to be great, we will struggle with all our might to be a father like God. Of course we can’t be better than Him, we won’t even be as good, but we can try. And it starts by going home.