A Man of God

As we approach Father's Day, we can reflect on the impact of a father who loves the Lord and provides spiritual leadership for his family. Christian men, even though it may not have been modeled for them in society or even in their own families, can rise to the occasion and rely on Christ to empower them to be whom God desires for them to be in that all-important fatherhood role. Ephesians 6 states:
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
2 "Honor your father and mother," which is the first commandment with promise:
3 "that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth."
4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

Christian apologist Alex McFarland wrote a piece for The Christian Post recently and he discusses the poor modeling that segments of entertainment and retail culture have provided regarding fatherhood.  He states:

TV and Hallmark need to rethink their tired dad tropes. Try to find a Father’s Day card that doesn’t link dads to beer, power tools or stupidity. Similarly, try to find a sitcom without a dufus dad. Sitcoms satirize family life because they appeal to themes most viewers understand: weird uncles and neighbors, dad jokes and mothers calming the chaos.

He dug deeper into television stereotypes, which certainly have not strengthen dads or moms in their roles, culturally speaking.  McFarland writes:

Early TV dads, like Ben Cartwright, were intelligent and industrious. Moms were senseless, uninformed and barely self-sufficient. Carol Burnett made the stereotype into a 50-year comedic career. Jackie Gleason’s loud fool next door took the TV dad arc to one extreme. It has alternated between extremes for decades, from loving, funny, successful Uncle Phil of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and Richard Cunningham of “Happy Days” to chauvinist, racist, nitwits like Archie Bunker and Homer Simpson.

McFarland offered what he called, "Ten ways to break the sitcom dad mold."

First, he listed this admonition: "Pray together. Welcome God into your family. Sundays, yes, but also into your home, dinner table and habits."

He also pointed out that a role of a dad is to "Shelter your family. Limit exposure to caustic social media and influences that defy or mock values and morals. Protecting their minds is more important and lasting than protecting their health."

Other ways that he highlighted included to...

• "Demonstrate manhood," 
• "Value your wife,"
• "Praise your children,"
• "Praise and respect your spouse publicly," and
• "Consecrate your family to God."

Alex goes on to note:

Heroes of the Christian faith were mountain climbers, sword fighters, shepherds, missionaries and rock-throwers. They rescued damsels in distress, built cities and gave their lives to spread the Gospel, translate the Bible and secure future generations.

He was also careful to point out that, "Men accomplished these feats beside godly women. Jesus’ followers and closest friends included women."

In his closing section of this Christian Post piece, Alex McFarland related:

A godly father provides (Ephesians 5:2), leads (Ephesians 5:25-32), reflects Christ (Romans 8:29) and blesses his wife (Proverbs 31:28; Ephesians 5:28). While the world struggles to understand manhood, God’s standard has never changed:

“God has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God…” (Micah 6:8).

There are several takeaways from this article.  One is that culture has done a disservice to men - and women - in the way that it has modeled and stereotyped them.  That certainly has been through entertainment culture, but the news cycle is full of men behaving badly, and the message is there that this is how men are - the phrase, "toxic masculinity," has been tossed around, for instance.

But, the Bible models for us what it really means to be a godly man and a godly woman - in their marriages, in their parenting, and in serving the Lord generally.  We must reject the world's stereotypes and embrace the Biblical roles that God has established.  And, recognize He has given us the power to walk in them.