Fatherhood: Invest Eternally

Fatherhood: Invest Eternally 

The fourth principle taught in Men’s Fraternity is to Invest Eternally.  Some might be scratching their heads on this one.  What does that mean?

Dictionary.com defines eternity as “infinite time; duration without beginning or end.”

In 1 John 2:25 (ESV) we learn “and this is the promise that He made to us—eternal life.”

In Chapter three of the Book of Ecclesiastics we are taught that for everything there is a season.  The very first lesson is that there is a “time to be born and a time to die.”  Based on the promise of eternal life and eternity meaning infinite time (or without end) we understand this verse to be discussing our earthly birth and our earthly death.  We as Christians understand that life on earth is not all that there is.

The best insight on eternity I have found comes from former NFL Quarterback Trent Dilford.  Several years ago he was being interviewed for the book “Men of Sunday” he discussed the death of his five year old son. Trent said something very profound and I would like to share it with you because I think it will help us understand why it is so important to invest eternally.   Here is what Trent said "if the motivation for your faith is what's going on in the...years we have here on this earth, then you are missing the truth of God's promises. What God promises is eternity. This is not our home. When we make our decision to trust in Him and to follow Him, our home is with Him for eternity."

This principle of investing eternally looks forward, not to later in our earthly life, but beyond this life.  This principle is what charges men to invest in their children and other young people to help them prepare for eternity.

In order to make the proper investment we must understand what the choices are for eternity.  There are two.  We can either reap a reward in Heaven with God or we can reap eternal punishment in Hell.  There are no other alternatives.  I am sure we all want our children and the young people we invest in to reap reward and not punishment.  In order to achieve our goal we must seize every opportunity to teach them to be Godly men and women.  How accomplish this:

First, we have to let them know that we love God and that he is a part of our life.  To do this we must model a prayerful life.  We need to let them see us pray, to pray with them and give them the opportunity to lead the family in prayer.  We must attend church regularly. 

Dad needs to be a leader in teaching his children to be faithful to the Lord. Sadly, too many dads abdicate this responsibility and such abdication most times has a lifelong affect on their children, in fact it could have an eternal affect on their souls.

When Dad consistently goes to church with his family 60% of those children will continue modeling that behavior for the rest of their lives.  When Dad does not consistently go to church only 4% of their children attend church regularly as adults. 

We need to role model not only good moral behavior.  We also must demonstrate our love of the Lord.  We must let our children see how we honor and glorify God as well as how we seek out His will and submit ourselves to His will. Our children’s eternal future depends on it.