Happy Father’s Day

Study Passages: Malachi 4:6; Proverbs 17:6

Being a father is as important as breathing. Our children, families and society cannot function in a healthy manner without fathers. "He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse." (Malachi 4:6; NASU) Fathers are as essential to God’s plan as brakes are to a car traveling at a high rate of speed. The beginning work for being a good father starts when a child learns to say ‘no’. This verse has shaped by life; “Grandchildren are the crown of old men, and the glory of sons is their fathers.” (Proverbs 17:6; NASU)

There was an 11 year old who was traveling with his family from Toronto to Eastern Ontario, the birthplace of his father. They reached the neighboring villages of Ventnor and Spencerville around midnight, long after the residents had gone to bed. Although his father was hesitant to wake any families, he needed directions to find the old homestead where they were to spend the night. Reluctantly he stopped at a darkened house and knocked on the door. After several minutes of waiting, the yard light came on, and an older man opened the door. He could hear his father apologizing for the inconvenience and then he identified himself as the son of Pearson Lockerbie – the boy’s grandfather who had died more than twenty years prior. “Oh, come in, come in,” said the old man. “No trouble at all. We knew your father.” This is the greatest legacy a father can leave his son.

In our society, there are many things more important than being a father – dating lots of women or owning a lot of worldly goods, to name a few. Even being respected by others is more important than being respected by our families. Satan always reverses God’s order. God made Adam to have a relationship with Him and after that was established He gave him a wife and children, who all lived peaceably in the Garden. This order must be maintained because without a relationship with God, man would have many wives and many children in many places, resulting in chaos.

A grown man awaiting surgery in the hospital was talking with his father. “Dad,” he said, “I sure hope I can be home for Father’s Day. I still remember how awful I felt when I was 10, because I never gave you a gift that year.” The father replied, “Mark, I remember that Saturday before Father’s Day. I saw you in the store. I watched as you picked up the cigars and stuffed them in your pocket. I knew you had no money, and I was sad because I thought you were going to run out of the store without paying. But as soon as you hid the cigars, you pulled them out and put them back. When you stayed out playing all the next day because you had no present, you’re probably thought I was hurt. You were wrong. When you put the cigars back and decided not to break the law, Mark, you gave me the best present I every received.”

Being a father is more than just about DNA, it is about giving life to many people for many years to come. Allow God the Father, by way of God the Son, through God the Holy Spirit to carve out His life in you so that through you His life blesses the lives of your children.

Have a Happy Father’s Day!!!!