Happy Father’s Day to you!

The third Sunday in June is a day to pay tribute to the father’s. Fortress of Hope Ministries acknowledges you for a job well done.

I understand that as a father who has an incarcerated child that you may not feel worthy of recognition. But you are worthy!

My husband grieved for many months after our son’s arrest. It was heart-wrenching to watch him lament over this situation. Thoughts replayed in his mind about what he could have done differently or wondered if he should have done something else.

But you see, we don’t think about those things when we are IN a situation or prior to an event unfolding.

The Lord led me to a Scripture that brought peace to my husband’s soul regarding him and our son.

“The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son” (Ezekiel 18:20 NKJV).

No guilt on the father for what the son has done! What a big relief! Then I came across a passage in Hebrews.

“For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how” (Hebrews 12:10a NLT).

Did you catch that phrase? “Doing the best they knew how.”

Dads, you are to be commended for being a father and doing the best you know how to do! As an earthly father, insight is limited.

Of course, having a child in prison is not a father’s desire. But prison is a form of God’s discipline in order to draw our children to Him. The next part of that verse reads …

“But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness” (Hebrews 12:10b NLT).

To share in God’s holiness, we must surrender our lives to Jesus Christ as Savior, then follow His ways. Our son admits that it took prison for God to reach him. Inside the prison, he found freedom in Jesus and walks with Him in ways he never did before.

I pray your children have Jesus as Lord. If not, I’d be honored to pray with you.

“No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way” (Hebrews 12:11).

Prison for discipline is not enjoyable. Nor is it pleasant for the parent. I remember just before I got a spanking my dad told me, “This hurts me worse than it’s going to hurt you.” I didn’t understand him because it was my behind that felt the lashes, not his.

But after becoming a parent, I got it. Disciplining a child hurts parents! As a dad, you ache because of your child’s imprisonment.

Do you know that God hurts when He punishes His children? In the Old Testament, the Lord told His people that if they continued to worship other gods, that they would be taken into captivity. Captivity is a form of discipline.

God allowed the Babylonians to take Judah captive. The Lord gave them a 70-year sentence. During this time, the people looked for a way out of it, but the Lord spoke through Jeremiah.

“‘Stay here in this land. If you do, I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you. For I am sorry about all the punishment I have had to bring upon you. Do not fear the king of Babylon anymore,’ says the Lord. ‘For I am with you and will save you and rescue you from his power. I will be merciful to you by making him kind, so he will let you stay here in your land.’” (Jeremiah 42:10-12 NLT)

God saying He’s sorry? Other translations use the word “relent.” The Strong’s means “To sigh, breathe strongly, to be sorry, to pity, console, rue, to avenge.”

God does not enjoy seeing His children go through discipline. Yet in the midst of discipline, He is with us and with our children. This is a promise from God for you. He rescues them from the power of the enemy. He’s merciful to them while they reside in the foreign land we call prison.

May you be comforted on this Father’s Day by knowing that your Abba, Father God, also aches for you and your child.

And may you be encouraged by knowing that though as an earthly father, you cannot spend time with your child the way you imagined, you have the promise from the Word of God that your heavenly Father is with your child—saving, rescuing, and extending mercy into his life.

Blessings in Christ,

 

My incarcerated son had this sketch made of the three generations of Whitworth’s and sent it as a gift to his dad for Father’s Day 2018.