Daily Encouragement

Monday, July 31, 2023

Union Station in Kansas City, MO
(Click on photo to enlarge.)

"A Childhood Memory"

Travel Note: We returned from our Midwest trip late Saturday evening. After our church service yesterday and a concert last night we are settling in today with the inevitable "been away for a week" which will include catching up on household and lawn duties. Thanks to the frequent rains Brooksyne's flowers survived but need a gardener's touch-up and I will be mowing a very verdant lawn!

Message summary: Fathers, a powerful model is taught within our daily text. How are you at encouraging and comforting your children? Do you urge them to live lives worthy of God and show them by your own example? Both are a big part of your Scriptural mandate as a father. Let us be found faithful in the godly task before us! A high aspiration for fathers is being a good dad.

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"For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into His kingdom and glory" (1 Thessalonians 2:11,12).

After attending our family reunion in Nebraska (Nebraska City) Monday through Wednesday last week we spent a couple of days in the Kansas City, MO area where I (Stephen) grew up. I left that area after high school graduation in 1973 so it was interesting to see the changes over the 50 years I have lived elsewhere.

On Thursday we went down to magnificently restored Union Station (now KC's main tourist attraction and hub for tourists) which brought back a childhood memory from 1967 when Mom, my sister, Genelle, and I took a train out to California to see my brother Michael, his wife, Billie, and Mom's first grandchild, my niece Greta. Daddy stayed home to work, dropping us off at Union Station to catch the train.

I have a lot of memories of that trip sampling some culinary firsts for me such as Chinese food with hot mustard and eating shrimp cocktail on Fisherman's Wharf. We rode on the famous cable car as most all do who tour San Francisco. Not many years later Michael became a cable car operator and worked right up to his retirement about 15 few years ago. I also saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time so it was a very memorable trip for a young boy growing up.

But my most poignant memory is that which happened after the trip when we returned to Union Station in Kansas City and Daddy picked us up. He was not a very emotional man but he had missed us so much that he was crying with joy upon seeing us. That was a side of him I had never seen before and it has remained with me to this day. His tears were a demonstration of love that he had a hard time verbalizing though, in his senior years, he was able to tell his four children face to face "I love you".

Twenty-five years ago this month Daddy went to be with the Lord. He was a big man of relatively few words yet, as I note the characteristics of fathers to which Paul was appealing in our daily text, I recall seeing them in my own dad. I sure miss him and look forward to seeing him in the ultimate reunion when I'm called home.

Paul never mentions his own father in any of his writings recorded in the New Testament and actually gives very little explicit teaching on fatherhood. Yet in the daily verse he presumes that his readers have an experience and knowledge of fathers: "For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children". He was confident that his initial readers knew how a father deals with his children. After-all, the pattern of having a mother and father goes back to creation.

Paul lists three characteristics of how a father deals with his children that were characteristic of his own ministry among them. As we consider the descriptive role of a godly father, let us ponder these three necessary character traits, "encouraging, comforting, and urging you to live lives worthy of God".

1) "Encouraging" - What a blessing to have a father who is an encourager, who believes in you and seeks to build you up.

2) "Comforting" – Of course both parents have these duties and in many ways we may associate receiving loving words of comfort more from our mothers, but fathers have a vital role in being comforters to their children as well.

3) "Urging you to live lives worthy of God" – This is surely a supreme purpose for a godly father.

Do you see these characteristics in your own father? Though there are now many who cannot identify with this kind of father figure, there are others who've experienced a similar relationship. If possible, personally honor your father by recalling some instances when this happened and share it with him in person, by telephone, through a written letter or a personal tribute. If he is no longer living, perhaps you can talk about some of those traits with family members.

Fathers, what a powerful model is taught in our daily text. How are you at encouraging and comforting your children? Do you urge them to live lives worthy of God and consistently show them by your own example? These are a big part of your Scriptural mandate as a father. Let us be found faithful in the godly task before us! It is a "great work" that God has ordained for us.

Be encouraged today, (Hebrews 3:13)

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Heavenly Father, may words of encouragement, comfort, and exhortation flow from our lips so that we may spur others on in the faith, most especially our own children. We pray that You would help Christian fathers everywhere to verbalize their faith and live in a way that honors You and shows others where their source of strength lies. Help them to be spiritual leaders in their homes, both in word and deed, so that a harvest of righteousness and peace will be upon their households is our prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources

"This Is Our God" Click to watch on YouTube Phil Wickham We were blessed as we sang this song in our church service yesterday.

Old Freight House repurposed to BBQ restaurant

Across the tracks from Union Station is the old freight house that has been repurposed as a Jack Stack BBQ Restaurant. We had our fill (if that's possible) of BBQ while in KC!
(Click on photo to enlarge.)

Do any of our readers recognize what this meat dish is colloquially called?

* for answer see below following last photo.

From Union Station we took a trolley car downtown and got off to walk around the City Market which was established in 1857. Quite old but not as old as our Lancaster Central Market which was established in 1730!

In City Market we visited the Arabia Steamboat Mus eum, which has a very interesting story.

Back in Pennsylvania, last night we went with some friends to an outdoor David Phelps concert in Lebanon, PA

* Our food photo today features "burnt ends" which are the charred ends of the brisket. In our neck of the woods it's hard to find burnt ends in BBQ restaurants but is plentiful in the KC area. Delicious!

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