HOUSE OF ROBERTS BLOG

How do you define success right now? For me, I’ve found that over the course of the 42 years I’ve been on the planet my definition of success has evolved. When I was a teenager, success was being able to dunk a basketball and eventually play in the NBA; a big dream for a short, stocky, Italian boy. When I got older and had my first job as a Youth Pastor, success was doubling my youth ministry in six months…By the way, it actually shrunk at first. Later on, success was marrying my wife, getting promoted, making more money, and so much more. Then we had children and I began to wrestle with what success really looked like for me.

Enter our man Philip who we have been looking at these past few weeks. There is one more time that Philip is mentioned in the Book of Acts. It is Acts 21:8-9, “The next day we went on to Caesarea and stayed at the home of Philip the Evangelist, one of the seven men who had been chosen to distribute food. 9 He had four unmarried daughters who had the gift of prophecy.”

As a reminder, Philip enters the scene of scripture by being chosen to help build a newly birthed church. Out of thousands, only seven men were chosen for a certain task, and Philip was one of those men…That’s success. Then he travels to a city called Samaria and begins to tell the people there about Jesus and what happens? We see crazy miracles taking place and the salvation of many… That’s success. Then we see him traveling to a remote road in the desert, simply because God told him to do it. And what happens next? He has this sovereign meet-up with an Ethiopian Official, he tells the man about Jesus, baptizes him, and then God supernaturally transports him to another town. Yes, you read that right, God straight Star Trek beamed him out of there. Having something happen to you that we only see in Sci-Fi movies…Success. 

Then we have Acts 21 and I think this is where we see Philip experiencing true success. Yes, he was given opportunities to lead…Yes, he was someone that people would travel to hear speak…Yes, God did some supernatural things through him and for him…But most importantly, all four of his daughters knew God personally and were operating in the gifts that God had blessed them with. As a father, that is true success.

What is it, if we hit a certain level of success only to see our children live lives that are less than what God has for them? How would it feel to attain success only to have our sons and daughters struggle? All I know is that that type of life is not what God has for you, Dad. It is never in His plans for your life to find success at the expense of your children.

Maybe you already have come to that realization like me, if so then good. My next question then is what are doing to help them succeed? It’s this crazy tension we all must manage because, on one hand, we need to keep pursuing what God has put in our hearts, but we must do it in such a way that we are parenting our children to do the same. I want my children to go farther than me, but in order to do that they must see me go far. And the only way they will see their dad go far is if I am intentional in bringing them along the way.

My kids are still pretty young so I am now wrestling on how to do this. Below are some practices that I have observed fathers do whose kids are older than mine and are succeeding in life:

• They make sure that you are spending quality time with their sons and daughters. 
• They observe and ask God to show them the talents and abilities that He has gifted them with. 
• They invest in the gifts and talents that they see in their children.
• They model an authentic pursuit of Jesus.
• They make in-person church a priority.
• They serve in their local church and have their children join them.
• They teach their kids early on about money. 
• They are intentional about the friends that their children have.

There are many more, but I know that if you ask God the best way to lead and parent your children He will show you. Also, never be intimidated to ask dads who are farther along than you for wisdom. My prayer for you this day is that your life would not only be filled with success, but you would also see your sons and daughters flourish as well.