Dad enjoyed time with us. Friday night at our house was movie night—the only time of the week that we watched a screen. There was special finger-food that we ate sitting on an old table cloth spread out on the floor. Even when he was working 80 hours a week, Dad joined us. We looked forward to Friday night starting Saturday morning. It wasn’t just the classic movies, but everyone being together without company, homework, or the phone, that we loved. “Movie night” was one of the many ways we knew our parents loved us, and it was a fun one.
Dad prayed for us. This one is harder to describe, because much of it went on behind closed doors. We certainly knew that if we had been morons or jerks during the day, Dad would be praying for that. But we somehow understood that Dad—and Mum—both prayed for us a lot. Even when we were little, we somehow knew that Dad himself was under authority, dependent on a strength outside of himself. But it probably wasn’t until we were parents that we understood more clearly why he prayed: a parent can do everything right, but unless God changes a child’s heart, it’s not going to bear eternal fruit in the child.
But faithful, biblical parenting always bears fruit, regardless of the child’s response to it. It sanctifies the parent as they die to self and self-reliance. It blesses other Christians as they see faithfulness lived out. It honours the God who gave both the children and the principles to raise them. And because God is a God who loves children and keeps His covenant, it usually blesses the children’s souls, too. A father who is more and more conformed to the image of Christ will increasingly point his children to the Father of spirits, leading them into the way of life (Heb. 12:9).
