Not long ago I was watching my son hold his daughter as she fell asleep on him, and it filled my heart with love and joy.

I walked over and kissed her, then kissed him on top of His head.

It’s a shame that our Western culture has reduced strength and masculinity to fighting, aggression, retaliation, insults and a hard heart.

This is not just because of deadbeat dads, or absent fathers, but by ‘good’ fathers raising their sons with the expectation that men should be hard, and anything other than that is weakness.

But, that’s not how God loves us.

HERE’S 3 REASONS FATHERS SHOULD KISS THEIR SONS TOO

1. IT’S A PICTURE OF HOW GOD LOVES US

When the prodigal or wasteful son finally returned home, his father could care less about how his son had put him to open shame. He ran to meet his son and kissed him on the neck. This represents God’s unconditional and unfailing love for us. It gives us a picture of how our strong and ALL-POWERFUL God, can be gentle and kind enough to ‘kiss’ his children. It gives us an example that there is nothing weak, feminine, or ‘weird’ about a father kissing his adult son.

LUKE 15:20 (NKJV)

²⁰ “And he arose and came to his father. But^(A)when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.

2. IT DEMONSTRATES THAT REAL LOVE IS NOT JUST EROTIC

Too many young men grow up thinking that you prove your manhood by being promiscuous. They learn to brag about their intimate encounters that are meant by God to only be between husband and wife (male and female). They learn a perverted view of real love and affection. When a father kisses his son, it teaches him that a kiss isn’t just a tool to get to a woman’s ‘goodies’, but a real, gentle expression of Godly love. It teaches them a kiss can be Holy.

1 Corinthians 16:20 (NKJV)

²⁰ All the brethren greet you.

3. IT TEACHES ALL STRENGTH ISN’T AGGRESSION

Our society today is impressed with what they have been taught is strength. But, God teaches us that evidence, or Fruit, of His Spirit is behavior that many people in the world today consider to be weakness.

Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV)

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

Notice that kindness and gentleness are proof that God lives inside of us through our Lord and Savior Yeshua the Messiah, Jesus Christ. God gives us an example of this with the Prodigal Son’s father. A gentle kiss from his father let him and everyone watching know how much he still loved his adult son.

It is our responsibility as fathers to let our sons know we love them as God loves us, and showing that love does not diminish their strength or masculinity.

Daddies shouldn’t only just kiss their daughters, but their sons too.

BE BLESSTIFIED!

The bible teaches us that it’s God that gives us the power, ability, knowledge and strength to get ‘wealth’, and that is very true…

Deuteronomy 8:18  (NKJV)

¹⁸ “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may ^[a]establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

But, how many times have you heard someone say, or said yourself,  “I deserved everything that I have because I worked hard for it!”

You planned…

You’ve worked hard…

You’ve sacrificed…

You’ve made good decisions.

You even had great faith.

Let me give you a quick reminder in humility and God’s grace and mercy…

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Yes, you definitely ‘earned’ it, but be very careful before you say you deserve it.

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Before you say that you deserve your success and influence because of your hard work and effort, think about all of the people who also planned, worked hard, sacrificed, made good decisions, and had great faith…and for whatever reason, things just didn’t work out.

Think about all of the businesses that fail every day.

Think about all of the relationships that fall apart every day.

There are plenty of people who have planned and worked…

Just as hard or harder…

Just as smart or smarter…

Sacrificed just as much and more…

Made decisions that were just as good or better…

And, things just didn’t work out in their favor.

From the macro-economic environment, to social conditions, unforeseen sicknesses and circumstances, there are innumerable reasons why sometimes hard work is not rewarded with success.

And let us not forget about those people who want to work but can’t because of a disability they can’t help.T

There are many people who saved, invested, planned well and opened businesses, their American Dream, must before the COVID-19 hit. Many of those businesses  were  off to a great start, but the effects of the pandemic wiped them out.

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All in all, it’s only by God’s grace and mercy and His plan for our lives that things, work out as we hope and plan.

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Remember…

Proverbs 16:9  (NKJV)

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Relationships are complicated and difficult, even good ones. But as we all know some relationships can slip into the category of ‘abusive’. And, abusive doesn’t always mean physical abuse.

When someone takes advantage of someone else’s love and mistreats them verbally or emotionally, that’s abusive.

When someone loves you enough to allow you to hurt them over and over again while always willing to forgive and move forward as if nothing happened, that’s abusive.

Micah 7:19 (NKJV)

¹⁹ He will again have compassion on us,
And will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all ^[a]our sins
Into the depths of the sea.

Isaiah 43:25-26 (NKJV)

²⁵ “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake;
And I will not remember your sins.
²⁶ Put Me in remembrance;
Let us contend together;
State your case, that you may be ^[a]acquitted.

That’s how powerful God’s loves is for us.

How many times have we abused Him verbally by taking His name in vain, or simply not giving it proper reverence and respect? Remember, YOU DON’T HAVE TO SAY “GD” TO TAKE GOD’S NAME IN VAIN…

How many times have we taken advantage of His love by promising we wouldn’t do something again, only to do it again…numerous times?

Psalm 103:10-14 (NKJV)

¹⁰ He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor punished us according to our iniquities.

¹¹ For as the heavens are high above the earth,
So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;
¹² As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
¹³ As a father pities his children,
So the Lord pities those who fear Him.
¹⁴ For He ^[a]knows our frame;
He remembers that we are dust.

How many times have we hurt Him emotionally buy putting others and things before Him?

How many times have we provoked Him to jealously?

Psalm 78:58 (NKJV)

⁵⁸ For they provoked Him to anger with their high places,
And moved Him to jealousy with their carved images.

How many times has He witnessed us committing spiritual adultery right in front of Him only to stand with His arms wide open welcoming us back into His love?

Notice how sometimes in the bible, God sounded almost like a hurt lover before He got angry at Israel’s sin…

Judges 2 (NKJV)

2 Then the Angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said: “I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you. ² And you shall make no ^[a]covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done this?

How many times have we put Him to open shame before His enemy and our adversary, choosing the devil over Him in our decisions.

How many times has the enemy had the same conversation with God about us that he had concerning Job? Have we always maintained God’s character through our trials?

Job 1:9-11 (NKJV)

⁹ So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? ¹⁰ Have You not ^[a]made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. ¹¹ But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse^[b] You to Your face!”

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How many times have we physically abused the Lord?

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Isaiah 53:5 (NKJV)

⁵ But He was wounded^[a] for our transgressions,
He was ^[b]bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes^[c] we are healed.

Hebrews 6:4-6 (NKJV)

⁴ For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, ⁵ and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, ^{6 [a]}if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

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Have you crucified Christ again today?

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The fact is that if this were a marriage (and our relationship with Him actually is) many of us would have ended it a long time ago.

2 Corinthians 11:2 (NKJV)

² For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Isaiah 54:5 (NKJV)

⁵ For your Maker is your husband,
The Lord of hosts is His name;
And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel;
He is called the God of the whole earth.

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God loves us with a relentless love. He allows us to hurt Him over and over again. Quite frankly, that’s abuse.

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Never take for granted God’s grace, mercy and faithfulness to us. He endures our ‘abuse’ every day and allows gives us brand new mercies every morning.

Lamentations 3:22-23 (NKJV)

²² Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
²³ They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.

The first thing we tell people in abusive relationships is to GET OUT! Aren’t you glad that God hasn’t gotten out of His relationship with you?

BE BLESSTIFIED!