How Do You View Your Father?

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And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. How do you view your father? How do you view your earthly father? How do you view your Heavenly Father? Is there some correlation?

Did you have a bad relationship with your dad, and could that have affected your? Your relationship with God. We want your calls today: 866-34 TRUTH-866-3442222222222. 348-7884. I've got a David Belk in the studio.

And David, you're a certified financial planner, is that right? That's correct. Yeah, and what company are you with? Carolina Financial Advisors out of Greensboro, North Carolina.

Okay, and if people wanted to contact you and help to get their finances straight, especially for retirement, as everybody's talking about, how would they contact you, David? Yeah, it's easy. 336-574-3132 or David at CarolinaFinancials.com. Yeah, I had sort of a mixed relationship with my father, David, my earthly father. My dad wasn't a Christian for pretty much my whole life.

And it was funny, when I went to college, I wasn't a Christian either. But I had a girl who kept bugging me about Jesus. And finally, one day I said, okay. And then, when I got into my 20s and 30s, I started to try to get my dad saved. And he was real, he was nice about it, he was polite about it.

But finally, one day he said, Look, I've had enough. He said, I'm not interested in that anymore. But at the same time, you know, my dad, my parents divorced when I was very young. And I think it was tough for me, tough for any kid having to grow up with just a single mother. And my mom did great.

So my dad left.

So there was that. But there were some things that my dad really taught me. that I take to this day. And you and I were talking about them a little bit before this show. And one of the things that my dad taught me, which is really a Christian principle, David, was he said, do one unto others.

As you shall have them do unto you.

So, in other words, if you wouldn't want somebody to rob you or steal from you, or you wouldn't want to treat somebody poorly in business. Then you don't, if you're if you don't want somebody to do that to you, don't do it to them. Another thing that you were talking about, David, was always keeping your word. Can you explain that? Yeah, well, I grew up in a church that had a lot of World War II veterans, and they pretty much taught you that when you say something that you're going to do it, your word is your bond.

So I learned that if you say you're going to do something, you do it.

Now You may realize in the process of the doing That you probably shouldn't have said yes to it, but as long as it's not breaking God's rule, man's laws, or anything of that nature, you complete it and you can say no to the future. But if you commit to something, you do it. If you commit to something, you do it. And you were telling me a little bit before, which kind of reminded me of my dad. I remember one time my dad went to go look at this car and he was so excited about it.

He wanted me to get it. And he told them that we were going to come back and get it. And I said, Dad, I'm sorry. I wish you would have told me this, or I wish I would have looked at it. I don't want this car.

And my dad said to the owner, he said, you know what? If he doesn't want to get it, I will, because I told you that I was going to get it. And you kind of have that attitude as well. Is that right? Yeah, I may have taken a different approach on a purchase.

But yeah, I mean, if I commit to something, as long, again, as long as I'm not breaking God's rules, God's laws are man's laws, and there's nothing immoral or unethical about the decision to assist or to be there to meet. I mean, this is basic life, everyday life. Show up when you say you're going to show up. Be early when you say you're going to show up. And complete the job, but do more.

Give more. We said it earlier. Um promise Promise less, deliver more. Yeah. Under promise and over deliver.

Over deliver.

So when you do that, that's what the world's missing. That's why people don't, that's why half the time you like Chick-fil-A.

Sometimes you may say, ah, they need to step it up because they're not living up to last week. Sure. But when you do that and you go to other restaurants and you want to be taken care of, you're there to be served. And it's not that we're not going to go into I need to be served, but you're looking for service. And so no matter what, if you're pumping gas, there's very few people who do that anymore, but if you're serving a Chick-fil-A Ice dream, as they used to call it, or you're doing something at a restaurant, or you're doing services like we do in the financial services, is we definitely want to deliver.

where we promise. Yeah. One of my favorite verses that I know is Colossians 3:23. And it says, Whatever you do, work at it with all of your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters. And so one of the things that I learned, and my dad, like I said, my dad wasn't a Christian.

We think maybe he got saved at the very end. We don't know. There's a story behind that. But one of the things that my dad taught me is he said, whenever you do a job, Michael, he said, I don't care if you're cleaning toilets at the McDonald's or I don't care if you're the CEO. You give it 100%.

You do your very best. And he said, I can tell you this. He said, if you're doing your very best and you're the best toilet cleaner at McDonald's, he said, you probably won't be doing that for very long. That's true. Yeah.

And so we've got a Fred Hagee out of Winston-Salem on the phone right now. Are you there, Fred? I am Mike. Hey, buddy, how how let me ask you your dad passed away. Is that right, Fred?

My dad got killed in an accident that he and I were involved in. Oh, no. I'm so sorry to hear about that. But how did you view your earthly how did you view your dad, your your earthly dad, Fred?

Well, I was really blessed by God, brother. A good parents is a blessing from God that transcends imagination. But my dad was a born again believer all my life, and He subscribed to the teachings of God's Word, and if it was in God's Word, it was good enough for him, and that's what he tried to live by, and that's how he told me. Yeah, and so your dad, I don't know if you heard us. Did you hear us talking, Fred, for the last few minutes?

I did. Yeah, and I was, we both said, David and I both said that we were taught that you were, when you were growing up, you gave somebody your word, you kept to that. And then Is that is that how your dad was as well? Or? Absolutely.

Yeah. And so, Fred, here's the next part of the question: is this how do you view your Your earthly father your your heavenly father, I'm sorry. My Heavenly Father, Uh, I think the best example of our Heavenly Father is found in that parable of the uh A prodigal son. Prodigal son had a really tough lesson to learn that only experience can teach. And it came real hard for him.

But when he finally decided to go back home, the uh father met him with open arms before he ever even got to the house. I tell you what, and if we view, if we've had a very tough father in this earth who was very harsh and hard with us, I think we can view God as the same way. It's like God's sitting there in heaven with a switch or a belt just waiting to beat us. But when you're a Christian, when you're a born-again Christian and you give your life to Jesus Christ, he no longer views you that way. Fred, the Bible says that he views us as friends.

Loo crew. He loves us. He wants the best for us. But we've got to be living according to God's word. We do.

And Fred, you wrote a book because you love your father in heaven and you want to obey him. What's the name of the book that you wrote? Give them Jesus, the only soul winner's handbook you will ever need, Mike. And people always talk about wanting to do evangelism. But when I read this book and I took it into action, I was able to see more people saved.

And so, Fred, if you're out there, pick up the book. It's called Give Em Jesus, the only Soul Winner's Handbook that, what, Fred? That you will ever need. By Fred Hagee, F-R-E-D-H-E-G-E. And Fred, I want to thank you for the call.

Thank you, Mike. God bless you, brother. Yeah, and we've got a Micah who's on the phone as well. And it looks like we're about to go to a break. But, David, how do you view your heavenly father?

Wow. Full of grace. for somebody who definitely didn't deserve it. A lot during his lifetime. Been blessed, fully blessed.

Um I mean, I truly I'm grateful for my family. I'm grateful for... I'll be have to be careful. I may come to tears here. I don't want to do that.

Um I just know that I'm blessed. Yeah. And I don't say that lightly and that's an easy thing. That's a Very wide, encompassing statement, but it's compact. But it's compact.

And we've got a Micah out of Graham, North Carolina, but we'll be right back. This is Michael Zwick. I've got David Belk, certified financial planner. We want your calls 866-34TRUT, 866-348-7884. We'll be right back after this break.

How do you view? your father. Heavenly All right, guys, we are back with the next segment. I've got David Belk back here in the studio, and I wanted to share something as well. I've got Micah who is on the phone too.

Are you there, Micah? Yes, sir. Can you hear me? Yes, sir, I can. And before we get to it, I've got a verse, and this is the verse I was quoting before.

It's John 15, 15. And it says, I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends. For everything that I learned from my father, I have made known to you. You know, I've always wanted to be part of the cool kids or in the cool crowd at school when I was younger or whatever, and wanted to be popular.

I wanted people to like me. But when I read that Bible verse, Micah and David, it says that the Lord himself calls me a friend. How do you view your father? Micah. Um, well, my dad passed away two years ago.

And give you a quick back story, he was You know, he was a great father. He was a provider, a protector. He fought battles for me when I was young. He was everywhere, ball field, and everything, which is omnipresent. All of these characteristics describe our Heavenly Father, right?

Mm-hmm.

So, you know, to him, I mean, My relationship with the Lord was directly reflected through my relationship with my father. Because he portrayed what the Lord was like. And through that, I was I knew how to love God, I knew how to trust God because I felt that from my dad, which is why it's very important as fathers to be that model. of the Lord and also represent that we are imperfect. But we love a perfect God, and what we are should point straight to God, not point to us ourselves.

And when my dad passed away, Um you know, we I had checked off all the boxes. I had been there for them. I was Close with him, we were close friends and all these things. But when he passed away, I was there even to when he died. And when he died, I was wrecked.

more than I thought I would be because I knew I'd have no regrets. And in that, the Lord showed me, he said, that when I grew up I kept him in as a false idol because I was looking to him where I should have been looking to the Lord. In those places my dad represented and he was there for me and always even financially providing or whatever, he was always there to help me. I had relied on him in places that I didn't rely on God for.

So at his general, I'm I felt compelled to get up and speak about how The Lord was wrecking me in that area, and it was a painful place, and I couldn't understand why. And he said to me, and the Lord showed me that my dad was sitting in God's seat in my heart. And I hadn't fully just turned to him because that is, you know, like when I was a child, I thought of the child. But when I grew up, I, you know, you know the verse how it goes. I don't know the address of it.

Yeah, when I was a child, I thought like a child. I reason like a child. I behave like a child.

Something like that. Say, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. That's 1 Corinthians 13, I believe. Yeah, go ahead. There you go.

See? And I realized in that moment. That The Lord I had to ask the Lord to rip that part out of me to heal that area because when I started becoming a man, I needed to be looking to the Lord for those things and not a Not an earthly figure. The Lord, my dad was a gift from the Lord. but he was not meant to take the Lord's place.

And I think it's really important to us as dads that when our kids start to be grown or even as their younger years is shepherding them of how important it is to we model the Lord, but yet we point to him for everything so that when we're no longer here, they're flying with the Lord. They're soaring in this life without us being here. Yeah, and I've got my nine-year-old son, Michael, right here with me, and he's able to hear all of this. And I remember when I was younger, Micah, you know, I would complain about my dad, or I would say he could have done this differently or that differently. And then I became a father of my own, and I realized I was like, sorry, dad.

You know, it's a lot harder to be a dad than I thought. And do you have a son as well? Yeah. I have a son and two daughters. And the one thing I've learned more than anything is that If you say, Well, I'm no longer a dad, or I'm older now, and my kids are grown, or whatever, ask the Lord to give you that fatherly figure because.

He will put people Are you there? You you people that need fatherly figures. Yes. Yeah. I mean, I and, you know, when you say that too, it's, it's like I remember when I was a kid, I was always trying to earn my father's approval.

And I felt like if I could do A, B, C, and D, then my dad would be pleased with me. And it was true. You know, when I was doing well in basketball, my dad would tell me, great job, great job. And, you know, then I went through a time where I messed up and I felt like he was very disappointed with me. And somebody sent me a letter or they sent me an email several years ago, and they had received a word from the Lord, Micah.

And it was Sharon Hungerford, my friend. And she said, Mike, she said, you look to a man who did not look to me at all. He said he looked to himself more than you. And basically in the letter, it was that I really need to look to the Lord. The Lord is my strength.

It's not my job. It's not my father, not my being an earthly father or not my finances or anything like that. But where I my source comes from, my source is from the Lord. And David, I'm sure you understand that as well. Yeah, one of the things I'd encourage you is to, it's great that you're actually acting as a Paul and you've got a Timothy.

I can tell that in your voice. And I think that we all should seek. To not because we want to be seen, but we should seek to where we are called. And who are we called into another person's life?

Sometimes that'll be represented by them approaching us. But I'll also encourage you: you know, when our kids are little, we're playing cop, trying to keep them, you know, kind of wrangled together. Then we turn into coaches and we do the coaching phase somewhere between 14 to 22, and then all of a sudden, it's kind of hands off, we become consultant.

So that consultant phase, as we all are not you, Michael, but me and and our caller here, we've got older kids, and so it it's harder to play consultant because If they don't ask us, then we're kind of just giving unasked for advice. That's right. And so it's, but it's being available even to the kids that we have that are adults to still be there.

So we still have good purpose as fathers to be there. You know, fatherlessness is huge in our society. And so you've got lots, many people. Who you could reach into and take a hand down and lift somebody up. We've got a good friend named.

Patrick Hayes in Greensboro. He runs an organization called Mended Fly Fishing.

Now, you're talking to my alley, fishing, anything. But the beauty of his organization is now he has a full-time job. He does marketing for about 30 or 40 different Chick-fil-A operators.

So he works. But he grew up as um His dad was incarcerated.

So he spent most of his childhood with his dad in prison. But somebody took him under his gun and taught him how to fish.

Well, he took that whole concept, and that's what he does. He takes kids who their parents, mothers, or fathers, or both that are incarcerated, and he takes them and he teaches them, he spends time with them, he mentors them, and he starts them around age 12 and he tries to take them through high school. And the impact that he's having on these kids' lives is unbelievable.

So we all have that role. To play in somebody's lives. Yes, we have it in our children's lives, but there are other people who need us to be stepping into their lives. Yeah, there's always somebody to help. And it's funny that you say that, David, because when I wake up in the morning, what gives me a purpose is I'll ask the Lord: I said, Who can I go out and help today?

And when I think about that, it pushes me to go out there. Micah, do you have your son there with you? You said you had a son? Oh, he's not here right now. He's not there right now.

Well, I want to thank you for the call, buddy. And I can hear your heart for the Lord, so I appreciate you. 866-348-7884. We've got a Cody out of Prospect Hill, North Carolina. Are you there, Cody?

Yes, sir. How are you, Mike? Doing just fine. Let me ask you this. How do you view?

Is your father still around, or did he pass away? Oh, he's still alive. He's still alive.

Well, when we get back, we want to ask you how you view your earthly and then your heavenly father, and is there some correlation there? Is there something, some kind of a connection there? But my name is Michael Zwick, 866-34Truth, 866-348-7884. We want your calls, and we're going to hear from Cody when we get back right after this break. with David Belk, certified financial planner.

All right, guys, 866-34 TRUTH 866. 3487884. We've got a Cody on the line, but I wanted to share this: Ephesians chapter 6, starting in verse 1. Children, obey your parents in the Lord. Do you hear that over there, Michael Jr.?

For this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth. Fathers, do not exasperate your children, instead, bring them up in the training. in the instruction of the Lord.

So going back to you, Cody, how do you view your earthly father? Um, well, the Lord the Lord really blessed me with a uh with with my earthly father, you know. Um I feel like I've got a relationship with my dad that a lot of people. Never get, you know, a lot of people don't know their father, which is really sad. Um But You know, I've always had had that father figure in my life, and not just my dad, but you know, my grandpa and Father-in-law, and there's been a lot of father figures in my life, but I think about my dad.

Oh, my earthly father. and how he stewarded me Um from From whenever I was born all the way to today, you know, he's still help steward me. Um Anyway, I've seen his successes. And I've seen his failures, which I've been able to learn from. But then He's loved me, you know, despite Despite anything that I've ever done, you know, he continued to love me.

Now, did I get a butt whooping for it? Probably. Probably didn't get as many as I should have. But, you know, that figure that we have, you know, that person to run to for protection, that person that's going to provide and help fight battles, but then ultimately lead you up in a way that one day you can fight your own battles. And that's been my dad.

You know, he taught me how to fish, hunt, work on vehicles. business. I mean, you name it like I've had a father that's been Yeah. a tremendous blessing to me. But I I think back to in high school I had Three or four friends, buddies that I run around with and My dad would.

You know, he'd take us fishing, or he'd take us hunting and so on and so forth. And at the time, you know, it was Hanging out with dad, but I got some buddies here that's hanging out too. And I really never thought that much about it until probably my early 20s. One of them called. And he said uh he said, you know, he said, I didn't, I never had a dad growing up.

He said, if it hadn't been for your dad, he said, I'd never. Been able to have gone fishing out on a lake or on a boat or went hunting and. Work on a car, you know, whatever it was. And I never reflected on that. Very few of my friends in high school had dads.

But because they were friends with me, I was able to share my father with them. And it goes back to the verse that you shared. You know, because we know Jesus and He now calls us a friend, we get to share. His father. We get to have a relationship there with God, the Father.

I was like, man, like this is great. You know, we have a Father in heaven that we get to share, not just our earthly father, but a God in heaven as believers in Jesus Christ. That's right. And let me ask you this. How do you view your heavenly father, Cody?

Um Honestly Aside for the imperfections of, you know, us as human beings and my earthly father, not a lot different. You know, the scriptures tell us he'll chastise those in whom he loves. I've I've felt that in my life. But then to those who call and seek his face and humble themselves and um and ask, you know, I think I think I was mentioned earlier, if we ask, He don't mind giving. might not be the way we expected it, but he don't mind giving.

Um You know, he'll love us. And he'll shepherd us. And he'll walk with us. Yeah, and one and David, the reason David's here, one of the reasons was because he's a CFP certified financial planner. But I'm actually about 50 pages into this book, David, that you gave me.

It's not the one by Randy Alcord, but the one where he wrote the forward, and it's about money, and it talks about being generous. And the Bible says, and I believe it's in the book of Proverbs, it says, the one who is generous will in turn be blessed themselves.

Now, we see some of the prosperity guys, and it's like, hey, you give me money, and God's going to bless you once you give me this money. And I think if you're doing it for that reason, it's probably the wrong way. But I had a father, David, who was generous, and he would always want to try to help me out any way he could financially. And he would try to bless me and stuff like that. But that's really kind of, in a sense, I guess it's your ministry is to help other people to learn to be generous themselves.

Yeah, I mean, a part of it is we're I'm also a certified Kingdom Advisor, which is part of the Kingdom Advisor program. It's a nationwide thing for investment advisors and attorneys and CPAs and things of that nature.

So part of that process is to actually teach biblical principles about finance. You mentioned Randy Alcorn, he's a great writer, happens to have written quite a few topics, books on this, Managing God's Money and Eternity Finances or Eternity Possessions and things. And so these are great resources to help people understand a better View From a true biblical context, of what do all the money principles really mean? Because as we've discussed already, there's more topics discussed on money in the Bible, or more Jesus spoke on money more than any other topic, because it grabs our heart. You know, one of the good things is often we're taught money management.

Processes by our family, our dad or our mother or however we were brought up. And they did the best they can with what they had. But I can tell you, what I know today and what my parents taught me are quite a ways different from what I've learned through the years. And so it's been really good. But for those people who want to understand biblical pro processes of financial planning or biblical giving, What does it really mean?

You're talking about the reap and the sow, and those prosperity pastors that we talk about. Yeah. I don't want to throw any arms up, but there's a lot of warnings. There's more warnings about that kind of stuff that we're not going to go into there today because we're talking about Father's Day, but we as dads have a responsibility. to also teach our children.

About giving. They need to see us giving. They don't need to see a checkbook we have to put in the mail. They need to see the activity, and they need to be taught that. And so being generous.

It's not just about money. It's about what the last speaker, and your dad, he spent time with these other boys. I mean, that's generosity. He was like, I don't want to spend time with those kids. He welcomed them into the family, and that's what we're to do.

So he's got influence. And so stewarding that influence is just as important as the other stewardship pieces. It is. And I'm looking at Luke chapter 12, verse 48. It says, But he that knew not and committed things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes.

For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required. And to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. And so everybody we know, you know, everybody wants to be rich, right? I want a lot of money. I want the Lord to bless me.

But in turn, it says if the Lord does bless you, then you really have an obligation. You know, when I read the Bible and we talk about being a godly giver and a godly father and all of that, we have a requirement to bless others. And especially we have the requirement to bless other Christians. And Cody, I'm sure your dad was generous as well, or dad is generous as well, right? Yes, sir, probably one of the most generous people that I know.

Um I know, I mean, financially, I wouldn't consider my dad a rich man, but um. spiritually, I consider him blessed beyond measure compared to most. But he's one that doesn't mind sharing God the Father and anything that he has, despite how little he may have. And that's, you know, another. lesson that I've learned from them.

Yeah, one of the things that I got from my dad, and I think I got my motivation or I got my push to be successful from my dad because success was very important to him. You know, not only that you were successful, but that you portrayed an image of success. And so going back to my heavenly father. It was hard for me, sometimes probably still is hard. That even if I'm a loser by the world standards, even if I make a huge financial blunder, and I have, even if I make mistakes, and I have, I've got somebody who gives me unconditional love.

Now, I got that from my mother a lot. I really did. And I grew up with my mother, but my mother, I knew that no matter how much I messed up, That my mother loved me. I could do the greatest things in the world, and my mother would love me. I could do the worst things in the world, and my mother would love me.

But I think with my dad, I felt like I had to earn his approval. And so, for a long time, I felt like I had to earn my approval with God. But when I read the Bible, I realize that I'm accepted. I'm accepted not because of anything that I've done, but because the finished work on the cross. Is that right, David?

Yeah, I think that's a role Satan likes to play with us. He likes to put our past, pull it back up, bring it in there, and play with us. I mean, he's the deceiver. He wants to break us down. He wants us to think we're not good enough.

He wants us to think we're not saved. He wants all this to destroy us. And, you know, we do have a heavenly Father. that has taken care of that for us. And often We were talking earlier.

Sometimes we just got to lift ourselves up, and that's praise and worship music. We were talking about earlier.

Sometimes, whatever, there's things you have to do to sometimes lift to get that out. And sometimes it's just pure outright rebuke of what Satan's trying to do in our minds. And so, um. Yeah, our our heavenly fathers, not all of them were great. Not all of them have done everything.

I mean, I've I've hurt my kids, my parents hurt me, and and vice versa. Um So I know that everybody's hearing this. Is not thinking, well, all that wasn't great for me. It didn't quite go like that for me. That's good for those callers, but that's not how it worked for me.

And we've all experienced that. Even in my own family, my dad, my dad, he did, he gave me it as well as your dad. He gave me the love for hunting and fishing and being outdoors. He gave me an entrepreneurial spirit. Go get her, go get it.

Go make money. When I was in college, like, I'm going to be a millionaire by the time I'm 30.

Okay.

Okay.

I didn't make it.

So I was 35. Whatever. These goals that were important, that so much of the things that used to be important to me. I love that old hymn. They just, they don't matter.

They're dim. They mean nothing anymore. In the light of his glory and grace. All day long. Turn your eyes upon Jesus.

All day long. Look full in his wonderful face. And I remember when I was younger talking about goals, I remember I set a goal because I had wanted to prove something. And I set a goal of $100,000 a year. And I said, I'm going to do it by the time I'm 30 years old.

And then I set another goal of that I was going to be the number one life insurance agent in the whole country. And I'll never forget I hit both of those goals, but especially when I became the number one life insurance agent in the country, I had a guy call me. His name was Matt Town. And I asked him, I said, where do I place? And he said, you're the number one life insurance agent in the country.

And for a moment, it was like euphoric. I was on cloud nine. But I'll never forget about five, ten minutes after that, it was like I came crashing down. And I realized that nothing satisfies you like Jesus. Nothing gives you joy like Jesus.

You've got Elon Musk, who became a trillionaire. And they asked him several months ago, Are you happy? He said, Not really. Money won't make you happy, but Jesus will make you happy. 866-34TRUTH-866-348-7884.

How do you view your father, your earthly father, and your heavenly father? This is Michael Zwick. I've got David Belk, certified financial planner, and I'm just certifiable. Truth. No.

All right, guys, we are back with our last segment with David Belk. How do you view your father? And so we talked about before, sometimes we feel guilt, we'll feel shame. And sometimes if you mess up, it's good to feel a little remorse or a little guilt or whatever, because that means you actually care and you have repentance in your heart. But the Lord says, if he said, if you ask me for forgiveness, if you repent, if you turn away from your sins and you ask me for forgiveness, he said, as far as the east is from the west, he says, I will remember your sins no more.

And so, first of all, I think if that, hey, if you had a father on this earth who may not have been the best father, then. First of all, you got to forgive them. You know, the Lord says, hey, if you forgive other people, I will forgive you. If you don't forgive other people, I won't forgive you. You know, we've all dropped the ball.

And then number two, David, you were just talking about this a minute ago. There may have been some fathers, there probably are some fathers who are listening on the other end who may have dropped the ball as a father in their lives. How would you respond to them? First would probably be to understand that We've all blown it. I mean, you're not alone in an area that blown it.

It's have you lived there? And I mean, it could be really bad. I mean, I know I've seen some situations where nobody wants to talk to anybody, but it starts with just talking to Jesus and letting him. direct and change a person's heart and it starts with our own. towards our children.

But if we've damaged, we've created other hurt, if we've created real problems, that's going to take some time. And it may take some professional counseling to help you get to that stage where you can really intervene or have them help you intervene to try to make relationships better. I mean, that's a really, we were talking that, you know, I'm not a counselor. My daughter's got a master's in counseling. She does this.

I'm probably not the one to be talking about it right now. But there is a roadmap, and it starts with Jesus and prosperously. prayer for Your family. Your kids, your adult kids, your estrange kids, whatever. Kids you may not have even seen or don't even know where they are for years.

But there's. Us who have, there's the normal guy, the normal dad that goes to church, goes to work, goes everything, and he's made it to some games. He's said some bad things, he's done this. We can all Ask for forgiveness of our kids. One of the biggest.

hardest things I ever did. was tell my kids what I'd done. and what my parents had done and how I'd let that affect our relationship.

Now, I wasn't smart enough to do that until they were in their early 20s. I should have done it a lot earlier. But it changes how. How they see you. My own father had a hard, hard lifestyle.

He had a hard life. Him and his younger brother, or actually was a year older. They were like 11 and 12. They were swimming, and his brother drowned. His father, my grandfather, blamed him for that all his life.

I didn't know that. My grandfather always kind of treated him differently, but my dad was always trying to make up for it. And there was a lot of anger from my grandfather towards my dad, and he abused him verbally and physically and emotionally. And so some of that played out in our life. And so I didn't know that until me and him had kind of gotten a pretty good tiff.

About when I was in college, and my aunt sent me a a letter explaining everything that happened to my dad. Yeah. It was a total paradigm shift of how I saw my dad. Because It it didn't make it right for some of the things he had done. But it made me understand.

to have empathy. For a person who I often didn't want to have any conversation with. And so that. letter from my aunt started that. And then as life gone on, you know, fortunately I got around good guys that we all had an interest in being better dads.

So as we learned, we realized the other relationships on the other side with our parents, how to increase those. My dad died three years ago. Yeah. It it it was a w I was there at the moment he died and um It was tough seeing him go through what he had to go through in the last couple of years. I can't say that I ran down the interstate to Gastonia every time something happened, but I ran a lot because I didn't know what was going on.

My dad was a believer. He had a hard life, and he did the best he could with what he knew, what he was taught. He did take us to church. He did teach me to hunt fish.

Well, when you're saying that, I'm reminded of Matthew chapter 5, verse 43, where it says, You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But this is Jesus. He says, But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father in heaven. He causes his Son to rise on the evil and on the good. And he sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.

If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even the pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

And when I hear that, I hear. Forgive. Love. You know, I've had so many instances. I had a guy yesterday that I was talking to, and he was just angry.

The guy had Parkinson's disease. I was talking to him and his wife about insurance. And at one point, he said, Well, I don't want to deal with a white guy. And I'm like, Well, I've been doing insurance for 22 years, I don't think I've ever heard that. But I treated the guy with love.

And I was trying to be compassionate and nice to him. And when we got outside, He looked at me and he said, if there's anything that I said to offend you, he said, I want you to know that I'm really sorry. If I would have been a jerk to that guy, it never would have happened. But see, when we show the love of Jesus. to other people.

A lot of times we live by that passage that I just read. God is able to open doors that nobody else will. You see, Islam doesn't teach this. A lot of the other religions don't teach this. We have a Father who loves us in heaven so much that He sent Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, to die on the cross for our sins, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish.

but have everlasting life. Who do you know who loves people like that, David? You. You know, we do have friends that. To just stop and talk to everybody, yeah.

There's some, and years ago it used to make me uncomfortable, it made me uncomfortable. I didn't, I didn't like that. I was like, why am I uncomfortable with this? Yeah, and I've. when you view people Between the They have the same father.

Yeah. As I do. Yeah. It changes things. is probably one of the hardest things I think I ever got over.

And I'm not saying I'm good at it, I'm not saying I'm perfect at it, but recognizing people are people of God. regardless of who they say they worship. Yeah. Regardless of what political office they may be standing in, regardless of whatever, that person. Is a child of God.

God Jesus the Father is their Father, just like He's mine, and He loves them. God forbid, as much as he loves me. Yeah. You know, and that's hard for people to swallow. That I mean, name your Name your Communist Person who wants to kill everybody, or other religion thing that wants to kill everybody, and say that's Jesus says, no boy.

Jesus loved Hitler. Jesus loved Stalin. Loved them all. Loved them all. And that's hard.

to reconcile In our Feeble. little people minds. Yeah, the Bible actually says that God is not willing to That any should perish. He said, but that all come to repentance. And it even says that, you know, people say, well, where is this promise of his coming?

You know, here it is. It's 2,000 years. Jesus hasn't come back yet. And that's what he says. He says, because God is not willing that any should perish, but that all come to repentance.

He loves your worst enemy. You know, it's funny. I ran into a guy. There's a guy from high school. Him and I just had a tough time.

We couldn't get along. And for whatever reason, this guy just hated me. And I would see him years later and he still hated me.

So on the way to the Truth Network, I saw his name outside. He's selling a building or something right near here. You know what I do every time? At first, I kind of got, oh, you know, whatever. But every time I walk by that building and I look at, and I look at his name, I start to pray for that guy.

And I pray for his salvation. I pray that the Lord will do something mighty in him. Because people talk about happiness. What makes happiness? Happiness, one of the reasons, one of the reasons I think I'm happy is because I'm not going to stay angry at somebody.

Now, it doesn't mean I don't feel that way sometimes, but it's like you were talking about at the beginning. It doesn't matter how you feel when you act a certain way and I make a decision. I'm going to love somebody regardless of how they treat me, regardless of what they think of me. I think Abraham Lincoln said, they asked him one time, they said, You really like this guy, right? He said, Yeah, I do.

And they said, Well, do you know that this guy doesn't like you? He said, What does that have to do with me?

So, yeah, that's that's a that I don't like that story. I don't like that story. You know, we're all faced with that story, though, every day. Yeah, uh, we all have that, and whether that is again towards our parents, towards our father, towards our children. You know.

They you know, the teenage years are tumultuous wi with teens and parents. Um the college years can be. When you start trying to get them to learn how to do a budget and they don't want to do it, and everybody argues over money, you learn to argue over money in your teens and your early college years because that's when you mess it up. And so that's why people don't like the word budget. But.

Everybody has the ability. to look at somebody As a Paul or Timothy. And that doesn't matter if it's your kids or it's not your kids. We all have a calling. We all, and this is for women too.

I mean, this is going to come across a little differently, I'm sure. But we all have a fatherly calling because there's some people that you're going to, some boys you're going to have access to that they don't have a mom or dad, but you can be a little bit of both and introduce them to guys who will put time into their lives. And that's crucial as well.

So, but it is, and as we're finishing up here, I've got a verse, and it's 1 John 3:1, and it says, See what great love the love. The Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God. And that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. We're children of God, and we should treat others as loved children of God.

David Belk, certified financial planner, if they want to contact you, 336-574-3132. Yeah, and I want to thank you for coming on today. My show, If Not For God, with Mike Zwick, I'll be on tomorrow on the Truth Network at noon. Follow me on social media.