My father’s teaching led me to Christ

Jim Honeycutt

This morning, I was contemplating my father, Walter, and his teaching Jesus to me. I thought, if my father had penned his life story, how would it read? Would I pen it any differently?

I searched the scriptures for thoughts and words on mentoring, for my father was my first to do so.

He was the one who first demonstrated the true strength of a man, for he humbly bent his knee to the King of Kings, an example of a courage and determination to pursue Jesus and His will at all costs. 

So, I find this written in God’s word, and I can almost hear my father speaking it to me.

The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the peace of God will be with you — Philipians 4:9.

When I was with my father these things were easy, even in great testing and sorrow, the peace that flowed in my childhood home sprang from the solid devotion to Christ that was lived abundantly.

I thought I wanted out from under my father’s roof when I was 18. I pictured myself now a man who did not need further mentoring. I pursued things that weren’t in line with my father’s teaching. And although God continued to bless me, sparing me, rescuing me by delivering me from snares. I did not pursue Him. I called myself a believer, yet in my foolishness, I tried to walk two paths.

By the time I arrived in Lockhart in 1989, I was broken in spirit. God had walked with Melissa and I through heartache and my rebellion. Now, unbeknownst to us, He was leading us to a pasture of rest. Now don’t be deceived, I have had trials, heartaches and setbacks, since coming to town, but the stings are tended to by The Great Physician, whose Spirit is active within me.

After a short while in town, welcomed by many in the community, God led us to a local Church. Embraced in love by the local saints, we dove in. It felt like coming home.  

As I grew closer to Christ, one thing became apparent to me, I needed a mentor. Hard to admit, reluctant to say, I needed my father’s words to lead my way. I looked around, I prayed, I waited, weeks went by, and nothing. One day, an older man who I attended church with, came by my work place.

A thought passed through my mind and I spoke it. I told him of all the young men, such as myself, God was bringing to the fellowship. I was 28. I told of the desire many of us had to be mentored by the older men, seeking their wisdom in following Christ.

He completely rebuffed me, saying men his age had already done their duty to God, and now it was up to the young men. To say it didn’t go the way I had hoped, is an understatement. It said a whole lot to me. It said the man I was speaking to was not so old as not to be able to serve; he didn’t want to. I questioned and questioned God about this and in His silence, I found my answer.

I realized I was searching for someone I already had, someone who had walked with me since I was a boy. Someone who knew me better than I knew myself. In all my asking, I had failed to ask the One who loves me greater than all. I had failed to ask The Lord. No sooner than I confessed this and asked Him, He swept into my spirit a reality that I cannot properly describe. He became my true mentor, though over the years He has used many a saint, man and woman to speak truth to me. It becomes iron-sharpening-iron. 

Through the ups and downs of this panicked world, it is easy to lose sight of this truth,

Christ promised in John 14:26, The Helper, The Holy Spirit, whom The Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

In a complete circle of how God teaches me, I was asked to help a young man as he begins a time of Bible study with others his age on Sunday mornings. The very thing I had asked God, was now asked of me; an older Christian to mentor younger believers, guided by the Holy Spirit, subject to Christ. An the irony of this is I’m the same age now as the man I first asked.

My answer is a resounding yes, for this is now my prayer:

And even when I am old and gray, O God do not forsake me, Until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to all who are to come — Psalm 71:18.