Stride4stride: "To the Fathers"

Dear reader,
The hurdle is not providing a financial foundation for your beloved children, but rather a spiritual one. It is my hope that you, as a father, will receive the blessing of our Father so that you may be empowered to lead us when we cannot even stand.
Before we look at how to cross this hurdle, I'd like to take the time to thank every father for attempting in the first place to run the race of parenthood. As I am not ready for that stage of life yet, I can only see a small portion of what you must bear. Your willingness to care for your children and desire to do what is right for their sake and not your own is commendable. The long hours spent trying to provide for the family is neither in vain nor is it unrecognized by our Father in heaven.

Now the issue for many fathers seems to be one small perspective shift. If you provide first for them spiritually, He will help you provide for their financial needs. Consider this, our Father watches over the sparrow, He watches over you, will He not take care of your children who are also His beautiful creation? By no means am I saying that you should give up in the workplace, but for your children, the time you spend with them is truly priceless.
In fact, it is traditionally the role of the father to provide for the physical needs of the family. In the same way that our Heavenly Father watches over our basic needs to survive, the earthly father is to provide a stable environment for his family. The responsibility usually falls upon his shoulders and is an area by which a father can reflect our Father.
Yet as a child, that was not what gave me the greatest sense of protection. When I was a little kid, I remember how my father worked late hours to meet deadlines and things of the like. For that, I am grateful. However, it was the times he took me fishing, took me for a run or simply spoke in a way that showed that he knew how I felt that really touched me. Those precious moments were the ones that blessed me and gave me a sense of security. It was when he was physically there for me that I felt safe and was best able to see how he loves me.
How much better we could run this race if our strides to provide for the ones we cared for matched His strides to care for us. It is my prayer that you, a co-heir with Christ, would properly identify the hurdle and run in alignment with Him. I pray that you would see yourself the way He sees you and that you would receive a blessing for your hard work through your children because you first had displayed a love that provided not simply for their physical needs, but also for their eternal ones.
Sincerely,
A brother in Christ