As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“57% of young adults raised in two-parent households report that they could rely on both their mother and father for help with a personal problem, while only 40% percent of Americans aged 50 or older report the same.” - IFS
First posted at Sharper Iron on July 24, 2009. Larry Blumer, the “Dad” in this essay, went to be with the Lord August 17, 2011.
An old adage says that when you’re sixteen your dad doesn’t know anything, when you’re twenty-six he’s occasionally sensible, and when you’re thirty-six he’s one of the wisest people you know. I can testify that there is some truth in that observation. Though I still rarely seek my dad’s advice, it’s because—at age forty-three—I have come to realize how much of his advice I’ve already absorbed from growing up around him.
Our Savior bought us with His own blood in order to redeem us and remake us in His image. That transformation is central to His great gospel purpose. In my life, He used my dad to accomplish some important parts of that purpose.
I don’t think my dad sat down and planned, “I need to teach these four values to my kids.” He did it mostly by just being there and speaking his mind (sometimes with passion!) in the context of a life that made what he meant unmistakably clear.
Bob Jones Sr. was fond of saying, “The greatest ability is dependability,” but that concept was familiar to me long before I read it in high school. I remember hearing as a kid, “If you say you’re going to do something, you do it. If you say you’re going to be somewhere, you be there,” and other variations on that theme (See Prov. 25:19). Dad wasn’t trying to preach, but his words drove a biblical principle deep into my young mind.
“’Dad,’ the son said to his father loudly enough that I could hear, ‘How come mom got roses on Mother’s Day and you get a lecture?’” - The Baptist Paper
“College-educated fathers with children under age 18 at home now spend an average of 10 hours, 12 minutes a week on child care, up by more than 2 hours a week since 2003.” - IFS
“Very often, as dad goes, so goes the culture…Tim Witmer’s book is timely; but it’s not social critique or theological treatise. It’s simple, practical, Christian wisdom, rooted in biblical truth and love.” - 9 Marks
“We certainly want to share eternity with our dads… but our longing for our unbelieving fathers’ salvation shouldn’t keep us from celebrating them now for the earthly good they’ve done.” - TGC
“Such whole-life training, as extended preparation for healthy adulthood, is our calling as Christian parents, training both the outer person and behaviors as well as pressing through to the heart” - Desiring God
“it is not what American culture expects of me, especially as a conservative man who might be thought to revere the mid-century family model of a working father and stay-at-home mother.” - CPost
“Men are most likely to say they were the most influential person in their partner’s decision to have an abortion. …(38%) say they had the most influence. Fewer point to a medical professional (18%), the woman’s mother (14%), her friends (7%), an abortion provider (4%)” - LifeWay
“…abba was not a childish term of the nursery comparable to ‘Daddy.’ It was a polite and serious term, yet also colloquial and familiar, regularly used by adult sons and daughters when addressing their father.” - Justin Taylor
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