Boy, did I have a blog post for Father’s Day.
Challenging, astonishing, horrifying. I wrote through the first 19 verses of Genesis 22, trying to imagine that three day journey to Mount Moriah from Abraham’s perspective.
I delved into the story as they walk north from their desert home to the hills of Judea. Isaac likely made any number of similar trips with his dad over the course of his adolescent life. They camp, sitting under a prophetic 
canopy of stars. Over the miles they talk and talk. Mt Moriah comes into view. The dreaded question. The altar, the knife, and the Voice. (I roll my eyes (inwardly, usually) when people say the Bible is boring.)
The takeaway was encouraging dads to build faith in their children through consistent spiritual practices.
I was happy with the 1,000 word result. On Saturday morning before Father’s Day I intended to make a few edits before publishing. Got my coffee, sat down, opened the page. It was blank. Tried again. Blank. Puzzled, I did a search. It took me to the blank page. I searched again. Same result. Panic rising, I asked my son to come over and help me. He searched in vain.
This happens to all writers, or so they say. I suppose there is some small consolation when it can be blamed on a glitch in the system or a power failure or the Russians. I had no such consolation. However, it finally dawned what had happened. It will not be shared here. Why should such embarrassment be added to my sorrow?
The Father, the Boy, and the Knife will be rewritten in the future. But I do want to share two goals every dad should keep in mind during the childrearing years:
- There is nothing more important than your children knowing God. One of the young dads who spoke at our church one Father’s Day provided some statistics on the effect of a father’s church attendance on his children. Here’s one I found particularly startling: A study in Switzerland in 1994 found that if both father and mother attend church regularly, 33% of children will become regular attendees. If the father attends irregularly and the mother attends regularly, that number falls to 3%. Numbers don’t lie. Dads are critical to the faith of their kids.
- Plan now to have a close relationship with your grown children. When the are kids keeping you up at night or they’re underfoot, when your calendar is filled with their activities, when they’re moody or defiant or on your last nerve, you are not thinking about the future when they’ll be grown and having children of their own. But those years will be upon you much quicker than you can imagine. If you have fathered in such a way that they enjoy your company (and you enjoy theirs), you will be a happy, happy grandparent.
And I’m sorry the trip to Mt. Moriah has been postponed, but these two points are important. Abraham would agree.
What kind of big changes/small tweaks need to be made in your relationship with your children? Can you start today?