I once heard a story about a drunken bum who had twin sons. One became a highly successful businessman, an elder in the church, admired by all who knew him. The other son couldn’t keep a job, was in and out of jail several times, and lived with the homeless on the dark side of town. When both were interviewed by a reporter who asked what had led to their position in life, each had the same answer: “With a father like mine, what else could I become?”
My dad was one of those preachers who acted the same around the house as he did when he was with people at church. Yet he never encouraged me to follow in his footsteps. “Please don’t copy my weaknesses,” he said, “but copy that which is good.”
He showed me the value of loving God and loving people, but how to do that has been a lifelong challenge to understand my heavenly Father and become more like him.
Beloved, we may be God’s children, but we don’t yet know what we will become. But the more of him we see, the more we’ll want to be like him, for we shall see how great he really is. — 1 John 3:2