A Word to Dads

Thanks.

That’s it…thanks.

Though the cynics among us claim it’s all a racket – that is – Hallmark created Father’s Day to sell cards – don’t believe it.  It’s right, and natural, and a very good thing that we take time once a year (and really, far more often than that) to say thank you to Dads everywhere.

Being a Dad is no easy job.  Oh, siring offspring, that’s easy enough, but living a life of integrity, loving and providing a good example for your children, day in and day out, that’s far from easy.  It does happen.  Think of some great examples from the Bible:

• Abraham, who went forth on faith and exerted a powerful spiritual influence on his family
• Isaac, who demonstrated the power and necessity of blessing one’s children
• Jacob, who commanded his household to put away idols
• Manoah, who prayed for instruction in regard to his coming child
•  David, who gave godly advice to his son Solomon
• Zechariah, the godly father of John the Baptist
• Cornelius, the head of a religious household

These and many others shine in history for people of faith to emulate.

Too often, we think fatherhood is about giving things to our kids, material things: that first ball or doll, the school books or sports uniform, that first car or college education.  Or, we think it means footing the bill when your kid messes up and unexpectedly costs the family some money.  Well, there certainly is a cost to being a father – and, as many Dads will say, the greatest cost sometimes is not material in nature at all.  It can hurt to love deeply, unconditionally, consistently.

Yet that is exactly how God loves us.

So thank you Dads – whether you are fathers in the literal or figurative sense – a “father figure” to others – thank you for being willing to, as scripture says, “love as you have first been loved.”  Thank you for pointing the way to a Heavenly Father who shines His love on us all, all the time.