Do you own a compass?

What about a map? If you do own one, do you look at it often? The idea of map reading for direction is a foreign concept to anyone born in the last 50 years. We live in an age where studies show 80% of individuals 18 to 30 years old confess to an inability to travel without an electronic navigation tool. With self-driving cars and different directional devices right around the corner, the compass and the map have all but disappeared. However, no matter the century, city, community, or child, there is one compass guaranteed to remain: the compass of a father.

The modeling a father gives is vastly similar to that of a compass and a map. Fathers show you what it means to be a son, a man, and a father yourself. When the day is done, our innate reference point for what we know to do in each of these roles comes from the modeling of our father. What do we do with the reality then, when we find ourselves in a tailspin because the model of a father was non-existent or subpar?

We encounter the knowledge of the truth as reality: our lack does not have to be our children’s lack. God is Father and provides the perfect model for us. God does not expect perfection from us but, rather, helps us readjust our internal compass for the external need at hand.

God is Father: Sonship

Psalm 32:8 says, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.” Just as we are called to train our children in the way they should go in Proverbs 22:6, God’s promise to us as children of God is to instruct us in the way we should go—to stamp the identity we need as sons on us.

God is Father: Manhood

Our father teaches us to what it looks like to be a man after’s God heart like David. He shows us the perfect path. Whether you were a rough-and-tumble or sensitive child, God knows how to fill in the gap between what you received and what you need.

God is Father: Fathering

Isaiah 64:8 says, “Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” God models for us what it looks like to be a father, the father our children need. There is not a situation too far out of reach for God to be able to be the Father model we need.

Chasms exist between the compass of the father from one person to the next. However, the only chasm that exists between what we have received and what we need is a simple ask. God is Father and He longs to be our perfect model so we might give those above us, beside us, and below us His best.

Where might you need to look to God as your Father today for provision and identity? He will be faithful to meet you and fill those needs!