I sat across from him and wondered to myself…how could it have gotten this bad? His life, once full of promise, had spiralled into a world of meth, alcohol and abuse. At only 30 yrs old he was ready to quit. The only thing that kept him alive was that he could not bear the thought of leaving his three kids behind. His estranged wife had “moved on” and was already with another guy (actually her 2nd “other guy”).
There he sat…looking at me kind of blankly… I don’t think he really expected me to help much. Ya see he was a church kid and had heard it all before….. “God loves you and has a great plan for your life”, “Lean on Jesus”, “God won’t bless the immorality in your life”, “what you are going through is a natural consequence of the choices you have made” ….blah, blah, blah! …
In a simple act of frustration I said the following…”“Those kids of yours that you love so much…all they want is to be close to their dad! They don’t care about your past…to them you are their HERO…start acting like it!” (yea I know, not my most compassionate moment)
He would tell me later that those words pierced him. At that moment he seemed to realize that someone else in his world needed him to be different, needed him to be better….needed him to be daddy. He is now (many months later) part of a growing group of folks in our church who are coming back to their faith because they realized that their kids were going to follow their examples. He has embraced his faith with both arms and is not just involved but is leading others to be involved as well.
Now he “walks with the Lord”…closely
THE POINT: Every one of us has people who look up to us. For a lot of us it is our kids.
As we examine our lives can I honestly encourage my kids to “imitate me”?.
(1 Corinthians 4:16 – Therefore I urge you to imitate me”.)
Or do I need to encourage them to ignore me?
Dads/Moms, you ARE your children’s HEROES.
I N T E N T I O N A L Marriage 