All Fathers Are Generals

One of my great honors in my life was serving in the United States Air Force for ten years. I was part of the 377th Civil Engineering Squadron at Kirtland Air Force Base which is located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Our job was primarily base support....construction, plumbing, electricity, heating and air conditioning and so on. My job was liquid fuels maintenance which means that I was a glorified gas station attendant. There wasn't much of a demand for my skill set at Kirtland so I volunteered to work in our war readiness unit. Some of my responsibilities there were: accounting for all deployable equipment, instructing fifty man teams on methods of deployment and issuing small arms. I loved this part of the job.
So, what's all of this got to do with being a father and a General? At the time, I was not a father. I was just a kid in the military. On December 1st of 1990, my world changed. I was deployed to serve in "Desert Shield", the first Persian Gulf War. I did not know what expect and at the time, I was not a follower of Christ. We were going into unknown territory to face unknown circumstances and we had to place our trust in our Commander. Once we arrived, our task was to build one of the largest "tent cities" the war would see. It took us a few weeks to accomplish this task but the experience was amazing. This tent city became our new home and base. Every day life was similar to that at Kirtland and it was back to business as usual: heating, plumbing electric and so on. During my off time, I started reading the Bible, and it was then that I discovered who Jesus was. Up until that day, I was afraid of dying. Jesus became so consuming to me that I completely lost any fear of becoming a casualty.
Operation Desert Storm started on January 16th, 1991. Our General had prepared a speech to remind us why we were all there. In today's military, the Generals and Colonels do most of the work behind the scenes. The Captains receive their orders from them and lead us based on their knowledge. The soldiers (or in Air Force terms, the airmen), have to trust the and follow the Generals orders based on his experience and knowledge of war. I think that has a lot in common with being a father. Our kids are soldiers on the battle front every day. The enemy (satan) will throw anything he can at kids to lead them away from Christ. He will put things in front of them such as low self worth, drugs and even sex to get their attention. As fathers, our duty is to defend our kids and prepare them for battle. We are Generals and our orders come from God. We have to educate, affirm and love our kids unconditionally, and we have to do this in Christ. We ultimately know who wins the war but God calls on us to serve. He calls us to stand up for what we believe in. He calls on us to love each other. And He calls on us and empowers us to rebuke the enemy. Will you be a General for your children?