Modeling our Great Heavenly Father, Psalm 103:1-14

Father’s Day is an important day. Certainly, we should give honor to our fathers and the other men who have participated in mentoring us, but it also a day to be reminded how important fatherhood is.
This world is active in undermining the importance of fatherhood and diminishing the role men are to play in their families and culture in general.
According to the US Census Bureau, 18-24 million children (24-33%) live without a father in the home, and that number is growing.
According to a National Fatherhood Initiative study in 2019, there are serious real-world consequences for fatherless children:
Research shows when a child is raised in a father-absent home, they are affected in the following ways...
• 4x Greater Risk of Poverty
• More Likely to Have Behavioral Problems
• 2x Greater Risk of Infant Mortality
• More Likely to Go to Prison
• More Likely to Commit Crime
• 7x More Likely to Become Pregnant as a Teen
• More Likely to Face Abuse and Neglect
• More Likely to Abuse Drugs and Alcohol
• 2x More Likely to Suffer Obesity
• 2x more Likely to Drop Out of School
A 2012 study found that Men who grew up with absent fathers were more likely to become absent fathers. They also found that women who grew up with absent fathers are more likely to have children with absent fathers.

Fatherhood is vital to a healthy culture, but there is much more to fatherhood than just more positive economic and social outcomes.
Fatherhood and motherhood are God ordained roles. Each parent has a role and responsibility in the family.
We often think of the father’s role as protecting and providing, and that is certainly part of his job, but not all, and nor even the most important.
The most important role a father (father-figure, mentor) has is to model the Heavenly Father. Paul revealed in Ephesians 5 that marriage is a living picture of Christ and the Church. Husbands and wives are to live out (Model) the Gospel story every day. People are to see the Gospel through the Christian marriage. Fatherhood is a similar situation.
The Scriptures repeatedly refer to God as our Father
Matthew 6:9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Romans 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
Psalm 68:5 Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.
Psalm 103:13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
A father’s most vital job is to faithfully model righteous fatherhood. It is nearly impossible to introduce the Heavenly Father to someone whose view and experience of fatherhood is twisted and corrupted.
Men (whether you are a biological father, a grandfather, or mentor), we must demonstrate to our kids and the people around us what a godly father is.
Psalm 103 gives us six characteristics of our Heavenly Father that we can thank Him for and strive to live out in our own lives to give the people in our lives a clear picture of who this God is.