Fathers - What a precious blessing from God! (Pictured above: AbiNoelle Lilly and her Daddy, Steve.)
Though Father's Day was not set aside for special recognition until 1910, from ancient times, people have paid respect to fathers in some fascinating ways. The ancient Egyptians believed that disrespect to a father was one of the seven most deadly sins.
The Ancient Greeks honored their fathers by always serving the head of the house first at mealtime. Dad was given the choicest morsels at the dinner table, and a libation was poured to honor all the fathers of the tribe living and dead.
Some of the fathers of Ancient Greece sat down to meals in their own special throne-like chairs. At banquets it was considered respectful for sons to anoint their fathers with oils and perfumes.
Julius Caesar was the first man to be called "Father of his country." But there have been many others since his day. In our own dear America our youngsters know George Washington by the same title, "Father of his country." Along with Washington we have had the Pilgrim Fathers, Puritan Fathers, and the Founding Fathers who framed the Constitution. For more than a century the senior member of the House of Representatives was called "Father of the House."
The originator of this special day was Mrs. John Bruce Dodd. Dodd planned Father's Day in 1910 as a tribute to her father, who had devotedly raised his family of six children after the death of his wife. She asked that all who had a living father wear a red rose. Those whose fathers had passed on were to wear a white rose. Although ever since then Father's Day was celebrated in many states, it was not until 1936 that the third Sunday in June was officially designated as Father's Day.
Someone has said the following about fathers -
A father is a thing that is forced to endure childbirth without an anesthetic.
A father is a thing that growls when it feels good... and always laughs very loud when it's scared half to death.
A father is sometimes accused of giving too much time to his business when the little ones are growing up.
That's partly fear, too!
Fathers are much more easily frightened than mothers.
A father never feels entirely worthy of the worship in his child's eyes.
He's never quite the hero his daughter thinks.. never quite the man his son believes him to be. This worries him, sometimes.
So he works too hard to try to smooth the rough places in the road for those of his own who will follow him.
A father is a thing that gets very angry when the first school grades aren't: as good as he thinks they should be.
He scolds his son—though he knows it's the teacher's fault.
A father is a thing that goes away to war, sometimes.
He learns the ruggedness of a soldier's life and would run the other way except that the war is a part of his only important job in life, which is making the world better for his child than it has been for him.
Fathers grow old faster than other people.
Because they, in other wars, have to stand atthe train station and wave goodbye to the uniform that climbs aboard...
And while mothers can cry where it shows fathers have to stand there and beam outside... and die inside.
Fathers are men who give daughters away to other men who aren't nearly good enough... so they can have grandchildren that are smarter than anyone else's.
Fathers fight dragons... almost daily.
They hurry away from the breakfast table off to the arena which is sometimes called an office, or a workshop. There, with calloused, practiced hands they tackle the dragon with three heads; Weariness, Work and Monotony.
And they never quite win the fight but they never give up.
Knights in shining armor fathers in shiny trousers, there's little difference as they march away to each workday.
I don't know all that good fathers do when they go to the life beyond, but I've got an idea that after a good rest, he won't be happy unless there's work to do.
He won't just sit on a cloud and wait for the girl he's loved and the kids she bore. He'll be busy there too.
The Bible is clear in the fact that a man who does not provide for his family is worse than an infidel, and my hat is off to any father who works hard and long to make an honest living. However; that is not the most important thing in life..Fathers, don't let your "business" cause you to lose your children So often we hear someone say, "If I had it all to do over again, I would spend more time with my kids." I have heard others say, "My children used to want to talk with me, but I was too busy to listen. Now I want to. listen, but they are too busy to talk to me." If you do not take the time to get acquainted with your children today, tomorrow they will be strangers to you.
Fathers, you have a tremendous privilege to build for eternity. Your houses will some day crumble. Your stocks and bonds will become useless one day. Your cars and boats will become outdated, but that child's immortal soul lives on.
Dad, I hope you are a praying father. If you are not, you are failing in one of the most important fields. Effective prayer can never be that which is read from some prayer book. it can never be that which has been committed to memory and then said over and over. However, may I give you here a model prayer that will just about cover every aspect of your duty as a father? From it you can enlarge your sincere prayer to God.
"I have a boy to bring up. Help me, Lord, to perform my task with wisdom and kindness and good cheer. Help me to see him clearly, as he is. Let not my pride in him hide his faults Let not my fear for him magnify my doubts. Quicken my judgment, so that I will know how to train him to think, and to be in all things, pure and simple.
"Give me great patience and long memory. Let me remember the hard places of my own youth, that I may help when I see him struggling, as I struggled. Let me remember the things that made me glad, lest I forget that the child's laughter is the light of life.
"Teach me the love that knows no weakness, tolerates no selfishness. Keep me from weakening my son through granting him pleasures that end in sickness of soul. Grant that I may love my son wisely. I have a boy to bring up. Teach me to give him the valued and beauty, just rewards of industry. Help me send him into the world with a mission of service. Strengthen my mind, that I may teach him that he is his brother's keeper, and to serve those who know not the need of service, and not knowing, need it the most. I have a boy to bring up. So guide and direct me that I may do this service to he glory of God... and to my son's happiness. Amen."
Someone recently said that perhaps we should think of what the world today would be like if Father's hadn't of converted their STUDIES into ENTERTAINMENT Rooms.
May God challenge and guide, strengthen and bless our Fathers on this Father's Day.
-Excerpts of VNW article 6/2001