When Earthly Fathers Shape How We See God

What if one brave, ordinary act from a parent could echo for decades and reshape a child’s view of God? We share a raw, hopeful journey from the chaos of addiction to the slow, steady work of rebuilding trust—with a school bus story that became a lifelong anchor. Along the way, we preview our upcoming deep dive into 1 Samuel and the life of King David, connecting his battles, restorations, and leadership to the spiritual moment we’re all living through right now.

We open our hearts about how alcohol warped communication, turned small moments into wounds, and taught our kids to brace for impact. Then we talk about the turning point: a sober life rooted in Jesus and empowered by the Holy Spirit, where words become clear, boundaries feel safe, and presence replaces performance. A weekend with our oldest son pulls back a treasured memory—dad stepping onto a bus, setting a firm boundary, and offering something children crave more than perfect parents: a secure defender who shows up without mocking their need.

From there we unpack why trust is a survival skill, not a luxury. When parents model protection, consistency, and honest repair, children learn how to rest, how to listen, and how to believe their heavenly Father will meet them with help instead of harm. We explore honor as a practical path that opens channels for wisdom and peace, and we reflect on how recovered relationships can become living parables of grace. The throughline is simple and strong: presence builds safety, safety births trust, and trust makes faith possible.

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Transcript

Prophetic Times And Why David Matters Now

Turning To Family And Parenting

The Descent Into Alcohol Dependence

Consequences On Father-Child Communication

New Life Through Jesus And Repairing Trust

Weekend With My Oldest Son

SPEAKER_00 0:31

In the next couple of weeks, we're going to begin once again looking into the book of 1 Samuel. And this time we're going to be looking at the life of King David from the point that he was a young man prior to his anointing to be the second king of Israel and then throughout his life until his death, the life of David. And it has really significant, there are many correlations, many significant correlations between what was in his life then and where we are now in the year 2026. And the things that are spiritually taking place, really unfolding in front of our faces as we speak. The prophetic things that are right now unfolding and becoming visible where previously they were hidden. Man, it's amazing to see what's unfolding prophetically in front of our faces right now. And the life of King David has some significant messages in it for us today. So we're going to be looking at that in depth coming up in a couple of weeks, but we're still in the mode right now of just kind of taking some time and discussing some things that are important in life. And one of those things today in this episode happens to be relationships with your children. And I am a 66-year-old man, and I fortunately have a good relationship with all of my five children and my grandchildren, even though I don't have a close relationship with my grandchildren. But I have a fairly close relationship with all of my children, two men and three women, now women, now men. And so not everyone could say that, and it hasn't always been my narrative. I was thinking that I was conveying things one way when in all reality what I was saying was being filtered through the mind of somebody that was inebriated all the time. I had innocently enough thought that I could periodically have a drink or two, like I would see most normal people would. And they would have a drink, maybe two, possibly three, and that would be it. And me that would be if I if if if if if I were just to stop at three, that would be just enough to get me angry. Meaning I'm just starting when other people are quitting. But I thought that that was kind of normal, and that other people were really the ones that had a problem with drinking, that they just couldn't enjoy it to its fullest. Now, if you stayed with drinking long enough, you would have to take three times as much or drink three times as much to get to the place that you were at previously. A tolerance was built. And eventually an addiction took place, and eventually the ism part of drinking becomes a reality because you realize that you don't have a brake pedal, you just have a gas pedal. And one is too many in a thousand isn't enough. And that was me. And I would keep drinking to keep from getting sick, because getting sick was not only potentially lethal when you're dealing with alcohol, but it is extremely painful and something that you just don't want to necessarily volunteer quickly to enter into. Anyway, that had a significant negative effect on the life of my how I communicated with my children for years, and I found out later that when I would talk with them, the narrative that was going on between us was something that was very ugly. They would, in the back of their heads, be saying be saying something like, What is this stupid drunk? How long is he gonna talk? When can I give out of here and what a loser my dad is? And that's putting it mildly. So having a relationship with my children in a good way, now that they're adults, is something that I attribute to one thing and one thing only, and that is the life of Jesus being given to me by the Holy Spirit as a gift from God. The lifestyle of Jesus now in operation in me creates a completely new narrative, and no longer is it being filtered through the lens of alcohol, is something that now is open and free and righteous, meaning it's in right order. And so this past weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to spend the entire weekend with my oldest son, who's 45 years old, right? And so previously we had a very rocky relationship, but starting out, my son, when he was a child and up to the age of 17, that was that the the issue of drinking was not a real issue within my life. And so my relationship with my son growing up was something that was very open and very very free from those other additives that come in the way. And so one he's telling me this story that I forgot about, and I want to share it with you. And it was it was this that that when he was, let's just say when he was seven years old, he was on his way to school, and the place that we lived in, they had to they they were they were bust to their elementary school. So he was nervous about making friends in this new school because he'd been homeschooled up to that point. And so we kind of coached him how to make friends, and one of the ways to make friends is just to go up to somebody and say, Hi, my name is Jake, and start talking and say, Why would you like to be friends? Because when you're kids, you can do that kind of thing. And so he said, you know, he got on the bus one day in the first day of school and walks up to this kid that was on the bus and says, Hi, my name is Jake, and talks to me says, Would you like to be my friend? And the kid looks at him and said, How do you like if I gave you a black eye? And it took my son, and it took him, took him back a couple of paces, and he's just like, Yeah, no, I don't want no black eye. And so he went to school, didn't get a black eye, came home, told me the story, and I'd forgotten all about this. But he, Jake, at the age of 45, remembered it distinctly this day. And he said, Wow, okay, he said, Well, Dad, here's what you did. He said, Okay, don't worry about it. The next day, you walked me to the bus stop, and then when the bus came, you got on the bus with me, and you walked up to that little kid, and you didn't threaten him, you just clearly looked at him and said, You're not gonna give my son a black eye. How would you like it if I gave you a black eye? And it straightened things out, and my son said he was like in the background saying, Yeah, dad, you know, you know, hold me back. Yeah, type thing. And the point being was he felt secure that his dad came to his rescue. His dad didn't mock him because he had a need. His dad, me, stood by him and defended him. And in that respect, I became a provider of security in his life. And he said, Dad, that has carried over into my relationship with my heavenly father. I can trust him. You taught me how to trust, and I, in my relationship with my heavenly father, have a trust that I can bring my situation to him, and he is going to actively become engaged with the solution. And it might be us working on it together, but the solution is coming from my heavenly father. So that is an absolute wonder to have a relationship with your earthly children and how our communication with them can affect how they view God. How I express things to my children has in it the capacity to leave in their life a footprint, an imprint that is enabling them to have a more open relationship with God because they can trust their Heavenly Father. If they can trust an earthly father, it's easier to trust your heavenly father, or at least it makes it more possible. And that's why it's important for us to have good relationships with our children, or if you're listening, to have a good relationship with your parents, even if your parents don't seem like they're worth giving your attention to. Because if you don't honor them, it's not as though it hurts them as much as it hurts you. Yes, it might hurt them to not be honored, but it hurts you even more because it cuts you off from receiving certain things in your life that enable you to do other things. Because trust is a very important component to have in one's life. Without it, it's hard to navigate through life. To not have trust, you're always on guard and always tense, never able to really relax and experience peace, joy. You can't really experience things that are righteous, that it always seems that something's wrong, not right. And that can often be traced to having a lack of trust. And so it's important for us to have healthy relationships with our children, and in that respect, for children to have healthy relationships with their parents, because both things can enhance not only our relationships with one another as people, but they can impact the relationship that we have with our Heavenly Father. Let's pray. Father God, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. That you can take things that were intended for evil and you can turn them around for good. You can take relationships that were difficult to navigate through, and you can provide a solution as to how that can really be a righteous relationship. So there can be peace and there can be joy. We can experience the kingdom of God with you, Holy Spirit, as you reveal Jesus to us and through us, and we become one, even as you are one. We honor you, we thank you for providing a way of communication where there doesn't seem to be a way that's possible. You make things possible. So we stand here in agreement with you, God, and pray your kingdom come, your will be done in our lives as it is in heaven. And we stand here in the mighty name of Jesus and we say, so be it, amen, amen, amen. Amen. Alright, folks. We we really love you, we care about you. And if you have any thoughts, questions, concerns, please feel free to drop us a line at lifearoundthefire at gmail.com. That's our email address, or you can just simply type in Life Around the Fire and look us up on the web. We would love to hear from you. In the meantime, God bless you. Adios, amigos.