Father's Day

In light of Father's Day (yes I know it has already passed but I wanted to post anyway), I just wanted to comment on how thankful I am for my Dad. In a society where a lot of fathers are absent in their children's lives I think my Dad has done an awesome job of staying connected to his kids. He always made sure when we were younger to set aside time to play games with us or read books to us. He would even leave his computer home when we went on vacations to make sure that he wasn't tempted to do any work.
A statistic that i heard at my church this weekend: Of all the kids that are taken to church each week by their mothers alone only 17% of those kids will continue to have a relationship with the Lord, on the other hand of all the children that are taken by their Father's to church not including their mom 68% continue to stay connected to God. That is so shocking to me. My pastor also commented on how most of the generational curses or sins that we have to this day stem from fatherlessness. He continued to preach an awesome message to the Father's... here are a few points from his sermon that are the 5 strategies Satan uses to get past the Doorkeeper of the house (ie Fathers).

1. Disorder - He has made it very unpopular for a man to lead his family and, consequently, many men have abdicated their authority to their wives, contrary to the order God has established throughout Scripture.
2. Distraction - He tries to get men so caught up in their careers, hobbies, sports or whatever that they withdraw from their families and stop paying attention.
3. Deception - He tries to get men to remain ignorant of, or forget the power of media and allow things into our homes that are not of God via the Internet, TV, movies, music, etc. Once we fall for this deception, we are easily bound.
4. Division - Knowing that a house divided cannot stand, Satan works to sew discord and disagreement wherever possible. It's the man's responsibility to make sure his house is in a place of agreement. If you and your wife aren't in agreement, it's your responsibility, men, to do what it takes to bring that agreement.
5. Desertion - Satan tries (and all too often succeeds) to convince men into leaving their families altogether. This can be physical desertion, when the father actually leaves for whatever reason, or emotionally; he may be physically present, but he's completely checked out otherwise.
6. Here is a link to his message http://victoryatl.com/p/11998/Default.aspx, click on the doors series and JUne 15 message. I strongly encourage any Father's reading this to listen to the message or any men that are going to be Fathers at some point, it is very empowering.