It was such a blessing to have Dr. Siang-Yang Tan with us this Father’s Day weekend. To all the fathers out there, thank you for all that you do as dads. I wish you all another good year of parenting as we continue to learn how to be better fathers, mentors, leaders, coaches, and all the other roles we fill for those we love.
For our Father’s Day message, Siang-Yang spoke on Romans 16:20, that says,
“The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”
There were so many insights that Siang-Yang drew from this passage in relation to who we are as fathers, and two in particular stuck out to me.
First, one of the most important insights is that as fathers, we need to be led by the Spirit. Siang-Yang shared about how we need to be people who are led by the Spirit and not our own abilities, accomplishments, or determination. As Siang-Yang shared about this topic, my mind was drawn to the topic of listening prayer that we’ve emphasized over the years. It’s so easy to often rely on our skills, gifts, and talents to help us get to where we want to be. Some of us have made a good living out of using our skills to the best of our abilities! But like Solomon says in Proverbs, without God, so much of this striving can be in vain if it’s not led by the Spirit of God.
It’s only by the Spirit that we can be the people that God has called us to be, whether that means growing as a father, wife, son, daughter, friend, employee, or otherwise. Learning to lean into the leading of the Spirit instead of our own ambition and determination is what sets us apart as Kingdom people instead of people that are simply following our own desires and goals, even if those goals seem noble.
The second insight that stuck out to me is that as parents, we need to lead with prayer. We don’t lead by having the best and most well-formulated plans, or by doing as much as we possibly can for our children, or by putting all our efforts to make sure our kids have everything they need. Of course, these things are all part of what it means to be a nurturing parent. But as Siang-Yang mentioned, one of the best and most important things that we can do for our kids is to pray for them, regardless of what age they are.
At times, it can be so easy for prayer to fall to the wayside. With the busyness of life and the responsibilities of parenting, it can be difficult to find time at all for prayer. But if we truly believe in the power of God and raising our kids in the fear of the Lord, then prayer will become one of our first acts as parents, not one of our last. In prayer, we recognize that we really need the grace of God to fill ours and our children’s lives.
As we parent, may we always be led by the Spirit, knowing that as Siang-Yang says, “when we put God first, God puts us first.”