Fathering

I find good Christian teaching all around me. It’s on radio and TV, the internet, on CD and DVD. There are whole bookshops dedicated to nothing but Christian books covering every conceivable aspect of life. There are seminars, conferences, Bible schools, ministry schools, training courses, rallies and meetings, enough to fill my every waking moment. In the churches there are sermons, homilies, exhortations, with Bible studies, meetings and discussion groups for people of every age and inclination. For Christian teaching I think we must be the best-instructed generation that there has ever been, and I praise God for this.

But I wonder how many of us have ever had a godly father-figure (or mother-figure), as the Corinthian Christians had in the Apostle Paul? Did we have a mentor who trained us in faith and in godly character? Did we have someone we could turn to with the most personal questions and confessions? Did we have someone who had the right to ask us the closest details about our Christian walk, with all its victories and defeats?

I believe all of us as Christians need this kind of spiritual parenting or mentoring. And once we’re mature enough in the faith God will call us to be that kind of spiritual parent to someone else. It’s an awesome role to fulfil, and one which does place heavy demands upon our time, but it brings the great reward of seeing the next generation of Christians grow to take their place in God’s Kingdom.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I love to hear Your voice as You speak into my life, but I love to hear wise and loving counsel from others as well. Please bring into my life a mentor, a parent-figure who can guide me in Your ways. Show me too if You want to use me this way for somebody else. Amen.