While the late Billy Graham was a hero to the world, he wasn’t to his family in various areas. This is why he regretted at the end of his life. He said he would spend more time with his family and reduced the speaking engagements, if he could do it over again.
It is good to learn from this general of faith both his passion for the Gospel and his mistake of not fathering his children.
It is very natural for men to pursue ministry (often out of the need for recognition and achievement, but masked as passion for Jesus). It’s a very thin line between the two. Because many of us didn’t have fathers who father us, and thus we repeat the same cycle over and over again.
But when we look to the Father above, we will know what truly matters in His heart.
I believe that the highest call of a married man with kids is to be a father. You are not first a pastor, prophet, evangelist, etc. You are first a son of the Most High, and thus you are first a father to your child. Else God would not be called “Father”. The earthly representation is to represent the heavenly.
Taking ministry to the extreme is wrong.
Taking parenting to the extreme is wrong too. There can be a balance.
After one crucial conversation, Ruth recalled about her father Billy Graham, “I saw how important the ministry was to him — and how little the family was. Things had to look right, and divorce didn’t fit.”
May we learn from Evangelist Billy.
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