Have you ever had an experience when you saw something, or heard something, and you let it pass as something of no consequence? Only to have it come up in your mind again and again? It’s as if the Lord does not want you to forget what you had seen or heard! Finally He gets your attention, and you sit and are quiet; you listen, and you discover that what you had brushed off as insignificant actually carried messages of some portent.
 19 December 2004
I came back from church.
For some inexplicable reason, I kept recalling three things I had seen in church that day. The incidents had somehow caught my attention that morning and yes, there had been a momentary sparkle. But I had thought nothing more of them. So I was surprised that the scenes were somehow etched in my memory and in the days that followed they insistently surfaced. I finally decided I had to take time to listen. Had I missed something? YES, I was to discover, they were not entirely insignificant.
Scene 1
What I Saw
Esther, 17 years, came forward to sit in the first row, next to Philip, her dad. (why did she do that that particular morning?) Worship was in progress. Esther reached for her father’s hand and they raised their hands together in praise and worship. It was a good sight for the eyes, daughter and father standing side by side, holding hands and worshipping the Lord together.
A teenage girl reaches out for her father’s hand. So why was that significant?
Because teenage girls in our churches and our nation are reaching out for their father’s hands. Whatever outward teenage bravado and sophistication she may parade externally, every teenage girl needs a father. Many, so many are reaching out for that parental hand for fatherly love, guidance, correction and instruction. Teenage daughters and sons are reaching out for their fathers and finding only empty space. Fathers, where are you? Will your daughter/son find your hand when she/he reaches out for it? Is your hand, are you, there to help them navigate the turbulent seas of adolescence?
“In contemporary society,” writes Richard Forster in Celebration of Discipline, “our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in ‘muchness’ and ‘manyness,’ he will rest satisfied.” This warning is, of course, for all of us. We are all caught up in noise, hurry, crowds; we are aggressive competitors in the contest for ‘muchness’ and ‘manyness.’ How urgently the call rings out for us to pray for fathers in our churches and our nations.
Repent
• for fathers who are not there for their children
• for fathers whose hands are raised to harm and hurt their children
• for the sin of incest and rape in our nation.
Pray
• for fathers to be there when their children reach out for their hands
• for fathers whose hands will provide for and protect their daughters and sons.
• for Christian fathers to model godly living
Scene 2
What I Saw
It is time to pray for the children before
they go downstairs to their classes. The children walk/run up to the front. This morning my eyes are on Bryan as he leads his daughter, five-year-old Casandrea, by the hand and then releases her to join the other children on stage.
A father leads his little daughter up for prayer. So why was that significant?
Because every young child (a daughter or a son) needs a father to take her by the hand and lead her to faith in the Lord and His word. We are not unaware of this reality in most of our churches: mothers are more concerned or at least seem to show more interest and concern in the area of spiritual matters.
BUT little girls and boys need fathers who have a robust faith in the Lord and demonstrate it to their young children. David Pawson observes about Christianity, “At the domestic level, wives are frequently more religious than their husbands, and mothers rather than fathers pass it on to their children.” We cannot and must not leave this matter unaddressed. Fathers, your children need you to read the Bible to them, to pray for them, to guide them in the things of God. We should be crying, “Woe!’ when fathers abscond and leave the mothers to handle the spiritual nurturing of the children.
Priceless indeed are the lingering memories of having heard Daddy read the Bible and having clasped hands with Daddy and Mummy in prayer before the Lord. It’s worth everything to be there to pass the faith on to the next generation. It’s worth a smaller pay packet if it means freeing Dad to have time to lead family devotions and to come to church to worship as a family.
Repent and Pray
• for fathers who have forgotten and overlooked the spiritual needs of their families
• for fathers to take responsibility, together with mothers, for the spiritual instruction and nurturing of their children.
Scene 3
What I Saw
Iwas talking to Edna after the service
when Jimmy came up to ask if there are maps in the devotional study Bible we were introducing to our members. Jimmy was carrying 2-year-old Clarisse, younger daughter of Bryan and Elaine.
Uncle Jimmy with little Clarisse. So why was that significant?
Because ‘uncles’ and men who are trusted by young girls and women must return trust with trust and not return trust with treachery and brutality. Our papers have been reporting tragic incidents of young girls (remember the Chinese girl in Singapore?) and women who have been abused and killed by men. A few of these men were known and trusted ‘friends’. Brothers, uncles, neighbours and colleagues are to be protectors of girls and women who trust them. They are to protect and not to take advantage of their trust, to harm and hurt.
Repent and Pray
• for the sins men commit against women
• for godly uncles and brothers in our churches who will protect the children and women who trust them
• for God-fearing men in our nation who will be protectors and not predators.
Take time to thank and praise the Lord for the godly men in your lives. Pray that their tribe will increase. And express your appreciation in appropriate ways.
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