FATHERS are important enough that the Nation celebrates Father’s Day in America but it was not easy to make it an official National holiday. The roots of this day are bound up in nearly six decades of local celebrations that were started and stopped and discussed and proposed. I guess honoring the position of Father in the family wasn’t nearly as important as honoring the position of Mother. But finally after six decades President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring Fathers in 1966. The third Sunday in June was designated as Father’s Day. President Richard Nixon made Father’s Day a permanent national holiday when he signed it into law in 1972. We hope that on this day each year Father gets his day of praise, honor, gifts that can be exchanged, a special meal, phone calls and texts from children who are far off and hugs and kisses from those who are near and a special kiss and hug from the wife who thinks he is still the man of her dreams.
Fathers are probably more important members of the family today in our society than they ever have been. Yet according to the U.S. Census Bureau “19.7 million children, more than 1 in 4, live without a father in the home. Consequently, there is a father factor in nearly all social ills facing America today.” According to fatherhood.org these children are at greater risk of poverty, more likely to have behavioral problems, have a greater risk of infant mortality, and are more likely to commit crime and go to prison. They are also more likely to become pregnant as a teen, face abuse and neglect, abuse drugs and alcohol, to suffer obesity and more likely to drop out of school. Responsible Fatherhood is important and those men who fulfill those responsibilities should be given the honor and respect they deserve. From personal experience I can tell you being a father is not easy and every father will have imperfections and probably fall far short at some time of expectations others have of him..
A father and a mother raising a family together was God’s plan from the beginning and still is the plan God has for today. There is no greater responsibility a father has to his children than to “bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord,” (Ephesians 6:4 NIV). If Dad fulfills his responsibility the normal pattern is that children will follow in his footsteps and follow God. The bible says, “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it,” (Proverbs 22:6 NIV). Sometimes children wander off the path but if Dad is faithful in instructing them when they are young the ultimate result will probably be good and at the very least Dad will have fulfilled his responsibilities before God and his family. It is sad that in America today we have so many homes with absent Fathers but we are thankful for the faithful fathers who are taking their roles as fathers seriously and being the husbands and fathers that God wants them to be. They deserve a special day of recognition and honor.
The most important thing any father can share with his child is how to come into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I pray that every Father who reads this “reflection” will make sure they have experienced that relationship with Jesus and that they have shared that experience with their children. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life,” (John 3:16 NIV). Fathers, make sure you have eternal life and that you share the way to salvation with your children.
CHUCK DAVIS-
