Hey Brother,
How are you doing today? I’m pretty tired. Having a newborn and a toddler is a whole different ball game than having just one kid. I’m sure many of you out there know what I’m talking about. You may be going through the same thing I am, or your kids are already out of the house. Maybe you’ve even moved on to grandkids! Either way, I’m sure you can agree with me that being a father can just be exhausting. I mean, I actually slept through the entire night last night (for the first time in a month) and I still feel tired!
As I sit here thinking about being a tired father, two things come to mind. First, if any of you have any tips or encouragement, PLEASE share them in the comments below. I know there’s a lot of Christian men out there who have already succeeded in raising their kids into reasonable adults, and I could use all the advice I can get! The second thought is about God. Brother, I’m so grateful we have a heavenly Father who doesn’t get tired like we do.
In Isaiah 40:28, the prophet proclaimed the endurance of our heavenly Father when he exclaimed, “Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.”
I don’t know about you, but that’s very encouraging to me. I fail a lot. As a father, I get exhausted, I get frustrated, and sometimes that means I lose my cool and don’t respond to my children in the way that I should. But God is not like that. He doesn’t get tired. He doesn’t let our mistakes and repeated failures frustrate Him to the point that He sins. Even when He has to discipline us, it’s always out of love.
“My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.” Hebrews 12:5-6
Brother, we may not always be the best dads. We may not all have had the greatest experiences with our own fathers. But, we have a heavenly Father who makes up for all of that. First John 4:8 tells us that “God is love.” And what do we know about the endurance of love? Love “beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things” (I Corinthians 13:7).
There is nothing we can bring to God that will exhaust Him. As His adopted children, we can run to him with our struggles and cry out, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). Abba means father in Aramaic. So, for all intents and purposes, crying out, “Abba, Father,” is like us running to God and saying, “Daddy, Daddy, help!”
As His adopted children, we can run to Him when we are exhausted. We’re never too big for Him. We can admit our sin, accept His discipline, and still know we’re never so bad that He doesn’t love us. Jesus made all this possible. When I ponder this… well, I feel less tired already.
Kristopher Galuska
Family Radio Staff