fernandejackson: The Privilege and Responsibility of Fatherhood

By: Steven?Caligiuri

Steven

I love being a father. When the kids were small it was easy. It was fun to get on the floor and play with them. I was their hero! What a privilege. What a responsibility. Killing spiders was one thing, but teaching them about Jesus is another. As a family we read the Bible stories, and sang the worship songs. But I knew that the best way to teach them Jesus was for me to simply be like Jesus. So I grew my hair long and wore a robe. Not really. But as I grew in my faith, they saw it. You can?t hide-out in a family home. Children are like sponges. They will absorb everything they see, hear, touch, and feel.

My daughters were a big part of our cross-cultural mission. When it looked like we were first going on a mission adventure, my oldest daughter asked, ?Did the Lord call us?? She was only 5 at the time. Then, in the Greek Church, people noticed how quiet our girls were. ?How do you do that?? It was the felt books my wife had given them. That opened a door to teach the families about raising children, and after that we were invited to give a marriage seminar to the couples in the church.

Arianna has taught me so much regarding parenting. I would not be the father I am today if it was not for her amazing gift as a mother. For us, it was a team effort. We worked well together, and I think we raised some pretty amazing kids.

Now in the cross-cultural environment, foreigners tend to gather together for comfort, friendship, and understanding. This is how ghettos are formed. As a family, we had each other. We did not hang out in the ?ghetto.? This created a beautiful bonding in our family. As a father I was very involved with my kids. I remember a lady in our home church, and how she once exhorted me: ?Don?t worry about the finances. Take care of your family.? I took that to heart. Our family was our ministry. Not in a selfish way, always with each other. As an example rather, to the people we lived amongst.

Then the girls got older. ?Dad, I?ve got a date tonight with Jesus.? Right on girl, I thought she was going to stay home and read her Bible. ?He?ll be here at 12:30.? What? That?s 30 minutes after the time you need to be back home! ?Dad, this is Spain, you know everything is like 2 hours later.? Spain was a very secular place to raise teenage daughters. I am thankful though, that our daughters found good friends and stayed true to the Word of God during that time. It was not easy though. As father I would see the tug of war the culture put against them. We did not always have a community of believers to lean on. We spent most of our time with non-believers sharing God?s love with them. So I was not only their father, but their pastor, priest, prophet, and prayer partner. What a privilege. What a responsibility.

***To read more articles from Steven check out his blog! ?www.livingcrossculturally.com