mgpcpastor's blog

My motivation to be a better man is the grace God has given in salvation.
Part of the fruit of that obedience is that as my two sons grow to be men that they will be able to think of my example as a starting point that they can improve.
The influence of my own father was such that I really had a sound starting point of what not to do and a very fractured idea of what I should have done.
I thank God for my wife and children’s patience with my selfishness and immaturity as we have grown as a family together.
When my sons were born 14 years ago I had no aspirations for them other than they would know that their father would always love and respect their mother and their paremts would always be married and that whatever they did, or failed to do, that I would always love them.
I have not always modelled that aspiration perfectly. I have been harsh of word and deed toward them at times. I have, no doubt, at times left them with the idea that because they did a bad thing, I thought they were bad boys and that my love for them was performance based. I am sorry.
But I hope in the failings of a human father that they are growing in their trust and love for a heavenly Father who always loves and accepts them because of what Jesus has done.
On a wall of our home hangs a very large framed print of Rembrandt’s Return of the Prodigal Son. Without words it is my statement of the love I want to have for my sons. Without words, day by day, it testifies of the actual perfect love that God the Father has for each of His adopted children, because of Jesus.
Happy fourteenth birthday Robert and Peter.