Fathers of Integrity

This Sunday is Father's Day and as I am one it sure makes me feel very inadequate. The importance of faithfulness and integrity come to mind as I think of Father' Day this year. My father is and has always been a true man. He taught me to be tough and to stand for myself. He showed me integrity of speech and that honesty is a precious commodity not to be squandered. Ken Love is a man of compassion and a big heart. He is not perfect and would readily admit that, but he always wanted me to know that I was loved, and he had no problem showing it and telling me as much.

My dad has served God for over 50 years now and is still very active in a ministry now outside the U.S. My mother and father are examples of faithfulness in marriage and in service to our great God. I pray that I will be able to say that and that my children will be able to express that about me when they are well gone and on their own. Integrity! A word that expresses my determination to do what I said I would. To keep my word and fulfill my promises.

I like how Tommy Nelson put it, "Reputation is who people think you are, but integrity is who you really are." As I preach, as I father our children, as I minister to my wife and those who come into my life, I pray it is accomplished through integrity. I pray that my heart will be able to stand in honesty before God and those around me and say, "I have done it to the best of my ability, done it according to God's Word, and done it to please and honor HIM and not necessarily you."

I want to live a life of integrity so that my life's legacy is God's glory. I hope my sons will grow up to become better fathers than I have ever been. I hope they will walk lives of honesty and deal with life as God would guide them. But where will they learn that if not through me? Who will teach them if I don't? Praise God for a dad who taught me to trust in our great God. Thank God for a father who demonstrated the ability I could have to trust in my Heavenly FATHER.

As a minister of the Gospel, I was challenged by a quote attributed to Clarence McCartney, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is quoted as saying, "The better the man, the better the preacher. When he kneels by the bed of the dying or when he mounts the pulpit stairs, every self denial he has made, every Christian forbearance he has shown, every resistance to sin and temptation will come back to strengthen his arm and give conviction to his voice. Likewise, every evasion of duty, indulgence of self, every compromise with evil, and every unworthy thought, work, or deed will be there at the head of the pulpit stairs to meet the minister on Sunday morning to take the light from his eyes and the power from his blow and the ring from his voice and the joy from his heart."


If sin has you in a stranglehold, you need to confess it and repent from it and then put your heart's attention back onto the mighty arm of God. Be in God's Word, spend time in prayer, and learn of Him. May we be fathers of integrity. May we be men of honesty and faithfulness to our sons and our daughters. May God fill our hearts with a hunger and a thirst that only His Spirit can fill and satisfy. May we then pass that on to the next generations!