A college professor came home

after a going out to dinner with his wife. While the babysitter had been

preoccupied, his son located the electric shaver and put a runway down

the middle of his head. His father was livid. "Didn't I tell you

to never touch my shaver?" You're going to get the spanking of your

life."

The son piped up and

said, "Wait until you see my sister!"

The father called

for his daughter, and when she entered the room, he about fell out. She

was completely buzzed. Not a hair on her head. He couldn't believe it

and exclaimed, "How could you do this?"

They replied together,

"But, Dad, we just wanted to look like you!"

Are you a father that

kids want to follow? George Herbert said, "One father is more than

a hundred schoolmasters."

Too many fathers give

good advice but set a poor example. One little boy had a bike wreck and

came running into the house scraped and bleeding and said, "Dad,

I wrecked my bike. What are those words you use when you hit the golf

bad bad?"

A father shared that

he used to smoke a big cigar after dinner. One summer on vacation at the

beach, he was sitting on the porch enjoying his cigar. He'd smoke the

cigar and set it down, then pick it up and set it down. He looked over

after a few moments and there was his five-year-old daughter standing

there with the big cigar in her mouth. The father decided that was his

last cigar. It didn't matter what he told her. She was watching what he

did and the example he set. If Daddy smoked cigars, then it must be all

right.

Some things aren't

all right, so we parents have to be so careful to send the right signals

to our keen and observant children. We need to give the right example,

but we also need to teach the right character. Example is external; character

is internal. Character has more to do with who we are than with what we

do. What we do flows out of who we are. Character has to do with being

all that God wants us to be and living the life God wants us to live.

Sammy Sosa, the Chicago

Cubs slugger, is having a hard time at the moment. In a recent game, Sosa's

bat shattered and its illegal insides were exposed. There was no hiding

the fact that this particular bat had been drilled out and filled with

cork. Major League Baseball suspended Sosa for seven games for using a

bat that was fixed to make the ball travel further. Sosa's explanation

was that he mistakenly grabbed a corked bat that he uses in batting practice

to entertain fans with long homeruns.

Major League Baseball

x-rayed 76 other Sosa bats and declared them clean. Sosa was contrite,

but the damage is done, his image shattered as badly as his bat. His character

is now being called into question. Did he use corked bats previously to

help him reach the esteemed 500-home run mark? Time will tell if he becomes

a Hall of Famer, but there will always be a dark cloud over Sosa's career.

Sosa will be remembered for cheating in this one at-bat.

We need dads of impeccable

character who will do right and be right, as best they can with God's

help. Dads who will be moral in an immoral world and will stand for right

when everyone around us readily accepts what is wrong. Will you be that

kind of Dad?

A young boy became

ill and underwent a series of tests. The results showed terminal illness.

The doctors said he had only months to live. As the months passed, the

family made the most of the time. As the end crept nearer, one day the

dad asked his son, "Are you afraid to meet Jesus?"

The little boy bravely

replied, " No, Dad, not if He's like you! "

"His little arms

crept around my neck,

And then I heard him

say,

Four simple words

I can't forget,

Four words that made

me pray.

They turned a mirror

on my soul,

On secrets no one

knew,

They startled me,

I hear them yet,

He said, "I'll

be like you!"

(Dr. David L. Chancey

is pastor of McDonough Road Baptist Church in Fayetteville. The church

family meets at 352 McDonough Road and invites you to join them this Sunday

for Bible study at 9:45 a.m. and worship at 10:55 a.m.)

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