Day 5

Issachar – Embracing the Burden of Blessing

Issachar’s blessing is a picture of strength and work. He is described as a donkey—an image of someone able to carry weight. Yet the warning is hidden in the comfort of a pleasant land. Comfort, when idolized, leads to compromise.

As a father, you want your children to find peace and provision—but not if it leads them to settle into spiritual apathy. We must raise children who are willing to bear responsibility, who use their strength to serve, not to sleep. Let them recognize that blessing often comes with burden and that God’s best is found not in ease but in obedience.

Encourage your children to carry their call with diligence. Don’t let them become passive in the presence of blessing. Strength is for service.

Prayer: Father, may my children never trade their calling for comfort. Let them recognize the weight they are built to carry, and teach them to shoulder it with joy. May they work not for man, but for You. Let their lives be marked by diligence, faithfulness, and joyful endurance. In Jesus’ name, Amen.