The Walters 5

This Father’s Day I felt heavy – a good kind of heavy. Being a husband and Dad is serious business that calls for selflessness that I honestly don’t exemplify. As I look at my Savior I see in Him the paradigm of selflessness. He laid aside His heavenly home to come to the earth and dwell among sinners like me. He patiently loved and instructed His disciples who were often spiritually clueless and self-seeking (Mark 9:33-37). He was spit upon, insulted, and put to death by cruel and sinful men. And He did it so that I could be reconciled to my Father (John 17:11).

My leadership at home should be marked by humble service to my wife and kids. I should be willing and eager to spend and be spent for them. And this doesn’t mean earning a living so that they can eat. It means sitting down and listening to my wife talk about the day even when I don’t “feel” like it. It means being disciplined to lead my family in nightly devotions even when I don’t “feel” like it. It means playing outside with Naomi and Ethan when I might rather be relaxing on the couch after a long day. In a word, it means living with my focus on others as opposed to myself. That’s leadership.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who,  though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Phil. 2:4-8

The gospel is both my motivation toward servant leadership and my source of forgiveness when I fail. Praise God for His mercy toward sinners like me!