Just For Dads: Be A Positive Christian Role Model – Day 10

Yesterday’s takeaway was about the dangers of pride, titled “Don’t step right up“! I found a devotional that was a bit longer and that sounded powerful as a message so that it could help us learn and become the dads God created and purposed for us to be. So I chose “Just For Dads: Be A Positive Christian Role Model” because, over 21 days, we will get to read and learn about how to be a positive Christian role model for our family! Over 21 days, we will get to learn about topics like: “self-discipline, love, patience, and much more
! This devotional will not only help us be the dads but it will also help us “in our day-to-day life to show our children what it truly means to be a role model and follower of Christ in every sense“.

Today’s scripture reading:

• Hosea 1:11

‘The people of Judah and the people of Israel will come together; they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.’

Hosea 1:11

God’s Word is powerful and true! God’s Word is alive and active! All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. So let’s make sure to turn to it regularly! Let’s be the dads who meditate on it daily! Let’s be the dads who turn to it when we are faced with making a choice or decision! Let’s be the dads who carry God’s Word with us in our hearts and minds as well as in a form we can reference!

Let’s be the dads who are servant leaders! Let’s be the dads who are shepherding our families! Let’s be the dads who pull people together rather than trying to divide them! Let’s be the dads who celebrate the coming together of our families!

Today’s devotional has been provided by Zondervan!

Reading through today’s devotional, here are some takeaways for me:
(check out the devotional on your own too to see if you pick up other nuggets, and please share your findings in the comments)

For more information, please visit Just For Dads: Be A Positive Christian Role Model | Devotional Reading Plan | YouVersion Bible for more details.

Takeaways from Today’s Devotional:

“The bride wore black“

• Do you realize that there are people in this world who are being used?
• Do you realize that there are people in this world who have chosen to be used to get by?
• Do you realize that there are people in this world who choose to be used by God because of their calling?
• Let’s be the dads who are called by God!
• Let’s be the dads who are servants of God!
• Let’s be the dads who are willing to be used by God in order to bring Him praise, honor, and glory!
• Ever meditated on the calling of God in Hosea’s life?
• Ever considered how it might have felt to be called to be a prophet of God?
• Ever considered how it might have felt to be called to be a prophet of God and then be instructed to go and get this message from God:
  • ‘When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord .” ‘
    Hosea 1:2
• Ever considered how it might have felt to be the dad who was called to give his kids names like:
  • Jezreel because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel
  • Lo-Ruhamah which means “not loved”
  • Lo-Ammi which means “not my people”
• Ever considered what hearing the following message of God would do to encourage you to press on?
  • ‘“Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ ‘
    Hosea 1:10
• Consider how Hosea must have felt or what he must have been thinking about what he was being called to do and what he was doing and yet doing it out of obedience to God!
• Consider how the message of Hosea speaks to the way God was feeling about His people and the lives they were choosing to live and their impact on Him!
• Consider what God is feeling when the people He loves and protects go out and “spiritually sleep around on Him“!
• Consider what God is feeling when the people He loves and protects go out and “flaunt their unfaithfulness to Him“!
• Consider what God is feeling when the people He loves and protects go out and “bring their false gods into the holiest of places“!
• Consider what God is feeling when the people He loves and protects go out and flaunt, wave around and show off their “infidelity“!
• Can you imagine how furious and angry that would or could make us if it had happened to us?
• Can you imagine how furious and angry God was?
• Can you imagine how broken-hearted you would have been if something like that happened to you?
• Can you imagine how broken-hearted God must have been?
• Consider how God loves people and hates the sins right?
• Today’s devotional positions it like this:
  • “God was furious, angry that His people had been so foolish . . . so calloused . . . so arrogant. But mostly, God’s heart was broken. What could have been a holy union between God and His beloved people had become a punch line — the brunt of laughter and ridicule. So God told Hosea that it wasn’t good enough for him to know about this spiritual adultery, he wanted Hosea to feel it . . . to literally live with the heartbreak of loving a rugged harlot instead of a cherished and virtuous bride. What an incredible lesson.“
• Let’s be the dads who reflect on this and consider how we are choosing to live our lives today!
• Let’s be the dads who reflect on this and consider if we are or have been living our lives more like the people of Israel or the people of Judah!
• Let’s be the dads who are choosing to get approval from God rather than people!
• Let’s be the dads who choose to be faithful to our God and His calling and purpose in our lives!
• Let’s be the dads who love unconditionally our wives, our kids, and our world!
• Let’s be the dads who look to deal with the problems, putting the problems on the table and attacking the problems rather than the people and work to get the problem resolved!
• Let’s be the dads who imitate God’s love, God’s unconditional love, and respond accordingly!
• Let’s be the dads who realize God’s love and how much He loves us!
• Let’s be the dads who realize God’s love for us and how it is “more that we could ever know“!
• Let’s be the dads who realize God’s love for us and how it is “more than we ever deserved“!
• Let’s be the dads who realize God’s love for us and how it is “even more than we loved our childhood sweetheart“!
• Let’s be the dads who realize how awesome it is!