How Strong Are You Dad?

How Strong Are You Dad?

I remember growing up and watching my dad work on the farm digging post holes while putting up fences.  I would watch him use the post hole digger and in what seemed a matter of seconds there was a hole for the next post. He would grab a post off the truck and throw it in the hole and start packing the dirt back in the hole making it strong and stable.

One day he asked me to dig a hole.  I was doing good just to hold the digger.  I tried to be like my daddy and dig the hole in meer seconds, but it did not happen.  He would stand there and let me try and smile at me saying “One day son, one day.”  I remember thinking that I wanted to be as strong as my daddy.

How Strong Are You Dad?
How Strong Are You Dad?

Now, I have two boys and one little girl that God has blessed me with.  When we work together outside I hear my boys saying to each other “I want to be strong like daddy”.  But over time I have learned there is another way to look at this.

David, a man after God’s own heart, had everything.  People who followed him, fought for him, and died for him.  One particular instance David and his men were coming back home and when they returned, everything was gone.

1 Samuel 30:3-6
3 When David and his men arrived at the town, they found it burned down. Their wives, sons, and daughters had been kidnapped.
4 David and the troops with him wept loudly until they had no strength left to weep.
5 David’s two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had also been kidnapped.
6 David was in a difficult position because the troops talked about stoning him, for they were all very bitter over the loss of their sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God.

All that David and his men had were gone.  Houses, possessions, animals and family gone.  In verse 4 it states that David and his men wept till they had no strength left. Then to make matters worse, not only was everything gone, his men wanted to stone him for taking them off to battle.  Have you every been there guys?  Have you lost what you call everything?  Possessions?  Family?  Friends?  Job?  This is where David was.

But if you look at those verses, it starts off talking about physical strength and ends talking about spiritual strength.  David’s physical strengths had diminished but his spiritual strength was strong and growing.  This is an awesome testimony to his faith!  Although everything David had was gone, God had not gone anywhere.  God was there before the problems, God was still there during the problems and God carried him through the problems.

Are you modeling this kind of strength to your kids?  Are you showing them strength in spiritual faith?  David did not go and consult with man on what to do next, he went before God.  He asked God on what to do next and he was answered!  That is what we as the leaders of our homes need to be doing.  We need to be able to call out to God and let him be our counselor, leader, mentor and advisor.  So husband, father, dad, man, let us step up and show our strength to our family and give our kids something that they want : Spiritual Strength!

Till next time…
I’m just a Husband of a Homeschooling Mom,
Steve Blackston