• What attributes of your father do you recognize in yourself?
Read Jeremiah 6:16.
Jeremiah says that the attributes of your father (and mother or guardian) form an ancient path—a good way—to walk finding rest for your soul.
• In the sermon on June 21, Pastor Steve recalled the ancient paths in his family of food and work. What ancient paths have been passed along in your family from the influence of fathers in each generation?
Read Matthew 7:9-11.
Jesus compares God to a heavenly Father. Our earthy fathers model many of the qualities of God himself. What attributes of God have been revealed to you through the model of your earthly father?
• Do men approach the fathering of their daughters different from how they father their sons? In other words, what does a daughter most need from her father, or what does a son most need from his father? What needs are similar or different?
John Lancaster Spalding, a 19th century Catholic bishop, wrote, “Memory can be a paradise from which we cannot be driven.
It can also be a hell from which we cannot escape.”
• In what ways have your experiences with fathering been either a paradise from which you cannot be driven or perhaps a hell from which you cannot escape?