Many of our men just returned from camping up at Lake Gregory. It’s good for us to rough it a little. Builds character.
I was talking with someone recently about the chaos of homes that follow the “gentle parenting” method. Instead of telling their kids what to do, they let them follow their feelings. And when the inmates run the asylum, it’s a mess. Feelings don’t lead us to wisdom—they lead us to disaster.
These riots across America are just spoiled brats following their feelings. They probably never got spankings when they were little!
Dad, your home will be better when you take your God-given authority seriously. There ought to be something about a dad that teaches kids what their heavenly Father is like. They won’t learn to surrender to God if they never learn to surrender at home.
Of course, authority isn’t everything. If you lead with authoritarianism, you’ll lose their hearts once the fear wears off. But let’s not overcorrect and remove authority altogether.
Our country used to be known for grit and toughness. Now we’re soft. Many men are passive, weak, scared, soft. They let their wives lead their marriage, control the home, and coddle the kids. Against their natural instinct, many men will let the child cry to mommy when what he really needed was for a dad to say, “You’ll be all right. That scrape makes you tough.”
“Oh pastor, you’re so cruel! Are you advocating child abuse??” How ridiculous. You know I’m not.
But I like Mike Rowe’s line: “Safety third.”
You want to talk about child abuse? Weak dads harm more children than scraped knees ever have. Kids need a model of biblical toughness.
Not abuse. Not harshness. Not anger. That’s not biblical.
But neither is softness.
The fruit of the Spirit includes gentleness—but gentleness isn’t weakness.
God, give us men who rise to their calling and lead like You do.
-Pastor Ryan