When I was young(er) and had fewer children, I came across these verses:

1 Thessalonians 2:11-12 (NIV84)

¹¹ For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children,¹² encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.

Paul here is writing to the church in Thessalonica about how he loved them and dealt with them as a father would his own children.  Although the point of the verse is that Paul dealt with his non-relative church family as if they were blood family, I was struck with HOW Paul explained a father’s actions should be toward his children.  I took it as a verse to model how I should deal with my own children.  I come back to it often:

Encouraging:  This may be a no-brainer in theory, but it is way more difficult in practice.  A father should be quick to encourage his children and definitely quicker to encourage than discourage.  I need to be reminded of this often.

Comforting:  Godly comfort must find its root in God.  We have a powerful, in charge, loving, merciful Father that makes promises He will never break.  This should give an earthly father a strong confidence to tell his children that no matter what God will take care of them.  Then a good earthly father will model this by not always fretting about the future, but by being at rest in the Father’s promises.  And on a very practical level, a good father will always protect and provide like his heavenly Father.

Urging:  A father should be urging, pulling, and prodding his children along to trust God and not trust other competing Gods: money, fame, entertainment, etc.  This can be especially difficult for father’s who are having a hard time do so themselves.  A father that is able to trust and live a life worthy of God does both himself and his children a favor.  And even when a father is following after the Lord, this urging must be intentional and often.

Finally,  we must not forget Paul’s encouragement here that the Father “calls you into his kingdom and glory.”  All of our encouraging, comforting, and urging would not be possible without a God that calls us earthly fathers to Himself, our heavenly Father.  I long for my children to be with me with our Father in glory.