For dad only:
Dinner Time is Family Time
Do you feast? I know many Bible-believing dads practice fasting. In my own life, I have thought myself more spiritual for fasting than for feasting. However, there are more records of Jesus feasting than fasting. The old-covenant believers enjoyed seven times as many feasts as they did fasts. I think God likes eating.
To enjoy feasting we have to understand the purpose of a multi-course meal: to enjoy other people’s company. Personal, microwaveable meals are an abomination compared to the art of feasting. God created good food for us to enjoy, not just some pudding and potatoes for us to chork down the gizzard.
Share your joys and sorrows at the family table
When grandma came to visit, she told granddaughter about her old trunk with several valuable things. One of those was a beautiful tablecloth with eight matching napkins. She told the young lady, “Someday I am going to put on a feast. I will use this nice table cover and napkins and serve up a grand meal.”
Grandma carried this dream for a long time and talked about it often. When she died, her granddaughter found the table-serving set still packed away. It had yellowed but had never been spread for anyone.
Dad, sometimes I get caught up in dreams of the dad I want to be instead of being my best right now. I plan a big feast for someday instead of sitting down and enjoying my family’s faces tonight. I know there are a million things to do and I should just eat and run. But the table is where we start eternity at the marriage supper of the lamb. Perhaps I can bring a little more heaven to my home at the table.
Feasting is discipleship
Why not do Devotions with Dad at the table this time? Make your table a place to talk about God. Get your children to talk and learn the art of fellowship. Do not just sit down to eat, become a part of one another.
Provide good food for your family. Stop feeding them on quick-fill starches. Let them experience savory meat, fresh vegetables, spicy sauces, and colorful dishes. Indulge your family with your presence, not just your appetite. Shut off the phone and put away your work when you come to the table.
Invite guests over who model godliness and talk about the faith. Learn more about the art of the family table in this very practical talk by Doug Phillips.
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Read this to the kids:
Sharing Emotion
Last time Rusty and Dad came back from hunting and got to tell Misty and Mom all about it.
After church, Mom and Dad were visiting with their friends. Rusty was talking with his friend Carter. “I was up in the tree stand and then I heard this crunching in the woods.”
Carter was watching someone walk by.
Rusty glanced at what he was looking at, then continued his story, “So, I looked and saw a deer—a big old buck.”
Carter nodded. He pulled out a portable game machine.
“I drew back my bow and shot the arrow—I missed, but my dad’s arrow pierced the buck’s heart!”
Carter looked up at Rusty and made a face that said, “Gross!”
“So, we had to track it down through the woods.”
Carter’s game had come on. “Look,” he said, “I have a new game on here.”
Rusty stopped talking for a second to look at the new game Carter was showing him. Then he picked up his story. “Do you know how we tracked the deer?”
Carter shook his head, not lifting his eyes from the screen.
“It was bleeding. My dad shot it through the heart and lungs, so we followed the blood trail through the woods.”
“Yuck!” Carter said, looking up.
“And then we had to cut its throat when we found it.”
“Oh, that’s sick, man.”
Rusty thought for a moment. He did not think Carter was getting the idea of how exciting this was. “We kept the head and we are getting it mounted.”
“Why would you want to put a dead deer on your wall?”
“Because he had ten points! That’s the biggest one Dad ever got, and I helped him—sort of.”
Looking at the score on his game, Carter asked, “Ten points? What do you mean?”
“On his antlers, y’know, there were ten of them.”
“Oh. How did you get the thing home?” Carter asked, finally looking up from his game.
“We had to cut it open and gut it there. Then we brought it home and took it to the meat processor.”
“Oooo,” Carter said. “You actually eat it? Doesn’t it taste gross?”
“It makes good sausage,” Rusty defended.
Carter went back to his game. Rusty wandered back over to Dad.
On the way home, Rusty brought up the frustrating conversation.
Dad laughed, “Oh, Rusty. Some people do not like the outdoors or things like hunting. Carter doesn’t sound interested in talking about those kind of things.”
“I thought he would be happy for us, though.”
“I know,” Dad said, “he is your friend, but not everyone enjoys the same things. You have to learn what he enjoys talking about. You have to learn who you can share stories like hunting with. Not everyone likes to hear about that. Some people do not enjoy hearing about the book you are reading or listening to you repeat conversations. Learn what interests them.”
“Yeah,” Misty said. “Like the guy we met in the store the other day, remember? He had visited our church and thought we were weird because we got so excited about Jesus. He thought there was something wrong with people who clap, sing loud, and jump around a little when they think about Jesus. He thought the preacher got too loud and the music went too fast.”
“You’re right,” Dad said, looking in the rearview mirror. “Not everyone understands our joy. They have to experience what we know about the Lord and they will get happy, too. What is exciting to you may look weird to them. Just pray that one day he will see what there is to be excited about and no one will be able to stop him either.
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Now discuss it!
How does Proverbs 14:10 apply to Rusty and Misty’s story?
When have you experienced the principles of that verse?
Do you listen to people to understand how they see things or do you just listen to people who think like you?
Do you think you understand what your parents get excited about?
Do you understand what makes them sad?
How do you share someone’s sadness?
Going to a funeral, sitting and listening, praying with them.
How do you share someone’s joy?
Have a graduation celebration, birthday party, or BBQ.
Why is it good to see things through other people’s eyes?
When do you not want to adopt someone else’s viewpoint?
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Read God’s Word together:
Blind to Joy
They said, “How did your eyes get opened?”
“A man named Jesus made a paste and rubbed it on my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ I did what he said. When I washed, I saw.”
“So where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
They marched the man to the Pharisees. This day when Jesus made the paste and healed his blindness was the Sabbath. The Pharisees grilled him again on how he had come to see.
He said, “He put a clay paste on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see.”
Some of the Pharisees said, “Obviously, this man can’t be from God. He doesn’t keep the Sabbath.”
Others countered, “How can a bad man do miraculous, God-revealing things like this?” There was a split in their ranks. They came back at the blind man, “You’re the expert. He opened your eyes. What do you say about him?”
He said, “He is a prophet.”
The Jews didn’t believe it, didn’t believe the man was blind to begin with. So they called the parents of the man now bright-eyed with sight. They asked them, “Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? So how is it that he now sees?”
His parents said, “We know he is our son, and we know he was born blind. But we don’t know how he came to see-haven’t a clue about who opened his eyes. Why don’t you ask him? He’s a grown man and can speak for himself.” (His parents were talking like this because they were intimidated by the Jewish leaders, who had already decided that anyone who took a stand that this was the Messiah would be kicked out of the meeting place. That’s why his parents said, “Ask him. He’s a grown man.”)
They called the man back a second time-the man who had been blind-and told him, “Give credit to God. We know this man is an impostor.”
He replied, “I know nothing about that one way or the other. But I know one thing for sure: I was blind . . . I now see.”
They said, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
“I’ve told you over and over and you haven’t listened. Why do you want to hear it again? Are you so eager to become his disciples?”
With that they jumped all over him. “You might be a disciple of that man, but we’re disciples of Moses. We know for sure that God spoke to Moses, but we have no idea where this man even comes from.”
The man replied, “This is amazing! You claim to know nothing about him, but the fact is, he opened my eyes! It’s well known that God isn’t at the beck and call of sinners, but listens carefully to anyone who lives in reverence and does his will. That someone opened the eyes of a man born blind has never been heard of-ever. If this man didn’t come from God, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
They said, “You’re nothing but dirt! How dare you take that tone with us!”
Then they threw him out in the street. Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and went and found him.
He asked him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
The man said, “Point him out to me, sir, so that I can believe in him.”
Jesus said, “You’re looking right at him. Don’t you recognize my voice?”
“Master, I believe,” the man said, and worshiped him.
Jesus then said, “I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind.”
Some Pharisees overheard him and said, “Does that mean you’re calling us blind?”
Jesus said, “If you were really blind, you would be blameless, but since you claim to see everything so well, you’re accountable for every fault and failure.
(John 9:10-41, MSG)
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Let’s talk about it!
Why do you think the religious leaders did not share the healed man’s joy?
Do you find it easier to cry with someone or to rejoice with them?
When have you been so excited about something but no one else really cared?
How do you make people feel when you do not share their joy?
How do you make people feel when try to understand their sorrows?
Role play: You get to go on a trip, but your friend gets grounded. How do you both share your experiences without ignoring the other’s feelings?
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Memorize it!
Proverbs 14:10
The heart knoweth his own bitterness;
and a stranger
doth not intermeddle with his joy.