Recently I watched a series of DVD’s called “Fathers of Vision” produced by the Homeschool Channel. Seven sessions (most of them one hour long) address what it means to be a godly man and lead a family. Half the sessions were preached by Kevin Swanson. His passion for God and his flailing arms make him interesting to watch. My sons, as they were listening to his sermons, stood up and began flailing their arms, and I smiled in hopes of raising at least one preacher. My 11-year-old son blurted out, “I agree with what he’s saying!”
As a woman, this is the first time I’ve heard a series of sermons on what it means to be a father. Women are always banished from the room when men’s roles are mentioned, as if it’s supposed to be a secret. (That’s because women turn into shrews and basically bash their husbands over the head to get them to do what they perceive is the right thing. When women do so, they are the ones ruling, and it never works. Besides, it’s sin.) But I think it’s highly helpful to know that our husbands are responsible for us (their wives and children) before God, and that we need to yield to that dominion and move in the same direction that our husbands want us to go.
I think that’s the key. Find out what’s inside the heart of your husband, what his vision for the family is, and then make that your priority. If your husband doesn’t have a vision for what he wants his family to be, these DVD’s would be excellent for him to watch because they give a biblical vision for how the father is supposed to function in the family.
Wouldn’t it be great if Christian men would rise up and say, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Men can take dominion over their homes and decide how to lead their families toward righteousness. The family should reflect the man. In order to do this, a man must actually pursue God for real. He can make such an enormous impact for Christ when he takes his God-given role and says, “I will fulfill it; so help me God.” And even if he fails, and he will, we as wives can support and pray for our husbands and make their task as easy as possible by yielding to his headship.
When I got to the sixth session, “The Heart of It All,” my heart was in my throat. That was an absolutely phenomenal session. Kevin Swanson admitted that he didn’t love his son, and the transformation that occurred inside of him to cause his heart to be woven to the heart of his son was incredible. That was the most Spirit-filled session, and if your husband only has time to watch one, that session is worth the price of the entire set.
What is the Homeschool Channel??? I have never heard of it…
I have to be so careful about teaching my son about the roles of men, and his future role as a man. His dad is *not* a good example (I think you read my post about getting out of that abusive relationship). You wrote, “In order to do this, a man must actually pursue God for real.” Which makes my task even trickier now as his dad, who has always been extremely anti-Christian is suddenly sending letters filled with Christian this and Christian that. The problem is, I don’t think he is sincere, or truly believes what he is writing – the letters that come in between attest to that fact. Sigh…this is a tightrope walk for us. I think it is difficult for many families, but more so for my son and I as a result.
I try to surround him with better male role models, and have found a small group of men willing to step up and help my son grow to be a good man too.
I have a link to the Homeschool Channel on my right hand sidebar. If you click on it, you can go look at what it is. It’s free to join. I get no money for plugging them, but they let me have my own live show once. Anyway, come friend me if you join. It’s like Facebook with homeschoolers, and with homeschool videos and programming.
Yes, I read the blog post you’re referring to. That’s great that you’ve found godly men to mentor your son.
My husband has been watching lots of Kevin Swanson on the Homeschool Channel.
Wow, it is powerful that he was so deeply honest in the last session, we need that honesty for healing!
PS. I don’t like getting booted from the right when folks are going to talk about the good stuff either 🙂