A Father's Joy

 

“The father of a righteous man has great joy; he who has a wise son delights in him.”

—Proverbs 23:24

I have never had the privilege of being a father. God did not choose to bless my wife and me with children. Nevertheless, I observe the relationship between fathers and their children with great delight.

A dear friend of mine has a seven-year-old son. That might not seem remarkable. But, he is a man in his mid-fifties. He has much older children, as well. I find it both comforting and amazing to see the great delight this young son brings to his dad.

I suppose part of my delight comes from the fact that I was a young child of an older dad. My dad was forty years old when he and my 42-year-old mom adopted me as a baby.

My dad was profoundly different than most of the other dads of the kids in my school and church. Many of those dads were nearly half my dad’s age. But, never once did I sense anything negative in the heart of my dad when it came to his relationship with me. He and mom had chosen me. Even the stress of being older while raising a young child did not seem like a burden to them.

King Solomon also had a unusually wonderful and much older dad. His dad was, of course, King David—the man of whom Scripture declares in 1 Kings 5:15:

For David had done what was right in the eyes of the Lord and had not failed to keep any of the Lord’s commands all the days of his life—except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.

So, it is not at all surprising, with a dad like King David, that King Solomon would write these words, as recorded in Proverbs 23:24:

The father of a righteous man has great joy; he who has a wise son delights in him.

As we begin a new day, let’s remember that our actions have a profound effect on our dads. Whether you are a son or a daughter, your choice of righteous living can either bring delight or sorrow to both your earthly dad and your heavenly father.

So, let’s choose to live righteously, as enabled by the Holy Spirit. Surely that will please our two fathers.

 

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