in the Shaping and Re-Shaping Business

How has your father shaped who you are today?

By Kurt Sandquist
Pastor of Families with Adolescents

That simple question can bring a wide range of emotions — from anger to laughter, from sadness to smiles.Whether we had a good or not so good relationship with our father, we are undeniably shaped by the man whom God chose to be our father. Science continues to uncover amazing and fascinating ways that God has created us, and how our father’s DNA uniquely shapes us.

But we are shaped by more than just a genetic link. Even those who have never known their father are still shaped by him. How can that be? Mentally, emotionally and spiritually — every father shapes their child. Even if we have had a godly father, we are all affected by the same legacy, the same family trait which every father passes to his children. From the first father, Adam, down through the generations to us, every father will pass sin, and with it death, to his kids.

That may not be the image of fatherhood that we like to think about or remember on Father’s Day. Yet, it is absolutely necessary to recognize this before we can ever begin to appreciate God as our eternal heavenly Father, and ultimately, the earthly father He has given to each of us. God’s Word has a lot to say about the important role of fathers, and how God desires fathers to be a model for teaching their children about the goodness of an eternal Father. But even if we had the best father, we all experience the inevitable shaping of their sin.

The awesome good news is that God is eager to adopt us to be our perfect father.

He wants to reshape us, no matter what our earthly father’s legacy has been. Our Heavenly Father gave His Son to die for all of our sins. How many of them? All of them! He died to wipe out our certain eternal death. He lives to re-shape and form us into His image. Our permanent, eternal adoption simply through faith in Jesus, is just the starting point for our new birth into a lifelong process of being re-shaped by the perfect Father.

Fathers, be encouraged that you have the privilege of passing this truth to your children by the way that you allow your Father to re-shape you. And for each of us, we can take heart that no matter how our father may have shaped us today, we are called to be re-shaped through our relationship to a loving, perfect Father now and forever.