THANK GOD FOR FATHERS

In 1909, after listening to a moving Mother’s Day sermon, Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington approached her pastor requesting a Father’s Day Service.
The first Father's Day celebration in Spokane, Washington was held the 19th of June 1910. States and organizations began lobbying Congress to declare an annual Father's Day. But Father’s Day was not as quickly accepted as was Mother’s Day. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson and his family personally observed the day. And in 1924, President Calvin Coolidge recommended that states, if they wished, should hold their own Father’s Day observances. Many people attempted to secure an official recognition for Father’s Day, without success. Then in 1966, President Lyndon Johnson declared the 3rd Sunday of June as Father's Day with a presidential proclamation. And in 1972, President Richard Nixon established Father's Day as a permanent holiday.

My father was in his fifties when I was born, and I only remember him as an old man. He never played with me. In fact I can’t remember him ever having a conversation with me. He wasn’t a perfect father by any means, but he did some things right. He always prayed before every meal. After breakfast he read a passage from our German Bible. Then everyone would kneel and pray out loud simultaneously. On Sundays he took us to our little German Baptist church about 5 miles from our farm-house. Even when the roads were blocked with snow, he had my older brothers hitch up a team of horses to the bobsled and took us to church. He left us a valuable legacy.

Even an imperfect father makes a positive impression on his children. Studies show a father in the home results in children being:
· 5 times less likely to commit suicide;
· 32 times less likely to run away;
· 20 times less likely to have behavioral disorders;
· 9 times less likely to drop out of high school;
· 10 times less likely to abuse chemical substances;
· and 9 times less likely to end up in state-operated institutions?

A Christian father in the home is an even greater blessing to his children because he has the scriptures to instruct him. “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.(a)

On this Father’s Day may each of us honor our Father for giving us life. Let us also honor him for all the positive things with which he blessed us.


Let’s Pray:
Heavenly Father, how fortunate we are to be your children. You are the perfect Father who has blessed us with every good and perfect gift.(b) Thank you that among those gifts is our human father. Help us as fathers to grow more and more like you.
Amen


Footnote:
(a) Ephesians 6:4 NLT, (b) James 1:17 NLT,




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