I turned 42 years old yesterday and have been thinking about my life. If the Father gives me a full 80 years and i divide my life up into 4 quarters, then i am at the beginning of the 3 quarter! All sports fans know how important it is to come out of the locker room ready to compete at the start of the 2nd half! It many times determines who will win the game!! Because as the 4th quarter roles around strength is waining and what you were earlier determines your success and your ability of affect others. I am a believer in Jesus in fact He changed my life completely on Father's Day 1993, neat considering I did not grow up knowing a dad. And i am a husband to a beautiful wife and a dad to 5 wonderful children and young adults. It really matters who I am and who I am becoming! God has invested in men alot of power and that power means we have a great responsibility to use if wisely. I recently asked a dad how I could raise girls like his girl who is a kind person and a hard worker, he said to me in Arabic, "you be good and she will be good". Alot of truth in that statement. And it reminds me of Deut 6 where God give us the way to raise a Godly family and affect a society for good and God, "you love God with all your being and then impress My word on your children in the life of the home." Don't look for others to do it dad and mom you have to do it! Men are to be leading, protecting and providing. We are to be authorities who are kind. Kids won't rebel against that kind of authority, they will run to it! I saw a dad baptize his son this summer but before he did he wanted to be sure that his son understood that he was deciding to follow Jesus as his own choice. So he asked him, "son do you trust in Jesus to save you from your sins?" The answer was yes Dad. "Son are you doing this because I want you to do it?" The answer came, "Yes Dad!" This is not what the dad expected! Now I know that the dad just wanted to be sure that his son understood his decision, but I have thought about this alot and i think that we may be so individualistic in our western minds that we miss the lesson here. It is in the heart of that boy to follow his dad's example! He can't help it! God put it there and God wants fathers to be leaders, leading their families in His ways and being used to change other homes one at a time and leading us to revival in the land. Father let is be so! Thank you!Here are some things I have to be doing!
Love God as my Father and love His son Jesus
Love my Bride and give her a good life and take care of her
Be a one woman man be clean, porn will kill you inside and make you man who lives in an unreal world and cant engage a real woman
Be involved w my kids at home
Make home a fun place to be
Work hard
Have a vision for our life and how to raise our kids
Seek God's dream not the American dream
Do EV with your family around
Stand up for something in a broken culture
Serve others together
Lead with love
Open your home to others dont let it be only a private place
Eat with lost people
About 10 years ago the Father worked in our lives and brought both Robin and I to the place of surrendering the control of our lives over to Him. He led us to make a step of faith and move our then very young family overseas. Since that day we have seen His faithfulness through a medical evacuation in which Yusef's life was preserved. And a military evacuation that relocated our then family of 6 to another country in the region. And all this time He has been faithfully watching over us and strengthening us. We just recently made move number 21 with our now family of 5 children and Robin and myself. For sure the moves are tougher and although we are not old, we also realize that we arent 20 either! I think that we realize that "home" is a very special word in the english language and in the Bible. Jesus promised that He was preparing a "home" for us and we know that this world is not our home, although we enjoy the good gifts that He has given us here. Home is a place that can only be created by the love of God. It is really easy for us from the west to spend alot of time creating a beautiful home on the outside but the real life in the home comes from a genuine relationship of love btw mom and dad and unconditional love for our children. 