“The righteous man leads a blameless life; blessed are his children after him (Proverbs 20:7).”
It’s Father’s Day here in America. so there’s an article on MSN called “1o Things My Dad Was Right About”. The story is replete with the sage wisdom of the author’s father. The advice includes using baggies to store stuff and watching Clint Eastwood movies because even the worst ones are good. (I agree with that. I love Eastwood!)
This article made me think of the wisdom of my own Dad. I didn’t think much of my father’s opinions when I was younger, and he was far from perfect, but I now wished I had listened to him on some things.
Dad knew how to handle money, for one. He wasn’t a rich man, but he had savings when he died. I, on the other hand, have been terrible with money and I am paying for it even today.
One trait I must have picked up from Dad is the love of learning. He wasn’t an academic, but he was a self-taught man. He read voraciously.
When he visited Finland, the land of my wife, Dad was full of information about the country. I think my in-laws were impressed.
Dad was so poor when he was a boy that his family couln’t afford paper for school. As a result, his teacher would chastize him for not taking notes. My Dad memorized everything instead, and still got good grades.
I think Joseph must have picked up a lot from his father. Jacob was a wheeler-dealer. When he was young, he managed to con his brother out of his birthright and his father’s blessing, two important rites of passage at the time for a man (Genesis 25:29-34; 27:1-40). Later, he made a contract with his father-in’law which resulted in his obtaining much of the man’s property (Genesis 30:25-31:1).
When Joseph became the ruler of Egypt, he followed in his father’s footsteps. He progressively negotiated the Egyptians out of everything they owned on behalf of Pharoah, even their own freedom (Genesis 47″13-26).
There was an even more important characteristic that Joseph picked up from his Dad. This was Jacob’s reverence for the Lord.
Jacob may have been a conniver, but He followed hard after God (Genesis 32:22-32). He worshipped his Lord until the end (Genesis 47:28-31).
Everyone picks up the good and not so good from their fathers. I am no different.
Like my own Dad, my children know I am far from perfect. However, I hope that if nothing else, my children will learn at least one positive thing from me: to follow God until the end of their days and meet me on the other side.
In the meantime I am working on the “far from perfect” aspect of my character. I won’t make it in this life, but for the sake of my wife and kids and my God, I am at least giving it a shot.
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