This weekend we will once again honor our fathers on Father’s Day. Like many of you, I will hear expressions of love from my own children, while also reaching out to my own dad. It is a wonderful day full of love and admiration.
Recently, as I was getting dressed for a wedding and working on a new necktie I bought for the occasion, I had this thought about neckties. Some people believe neckties were created to torture modern man (and I tend to agree with that as well). I also had this thought: perhaps God created neckties. Not to torture everyone who doesn’t want to wear a tie, but rather to be a rite of passage between a father and a son. I still remember my dad teaching me how to tie my first necktie, as well as the first time that I taught my son. A lot can go on while a father teaches his son how to dress up and look his best.
It really is more than just learning how to tie a knot; it’s about becoming something. Just like a necktie, I believe God may have created little tea cups to help fathers develop a rite of passage with their daughters. As they are drawn to the floor to sip imaginary tea with their princess, they are teaching much more than just how to hold a tea cup. They are conveying a thousand meaningful messages without even knowing it. In these moments, children are more than just taught—they are truly being fathered.
Fathering is more than just bringing about the conception of a child. It’s really about teaching the child to know who they are and who they can become. Each one of these moments holds a special time in which worth, love and value are transferred from father to child.
The heart of fathering truly comes from the idea and desire that life should continue beyond our own lives. To have your name or your character live on through the lives of your Children is the desire of every father, including our Heavenly Father.
Like neckties and tea cups, our Father God also creates things in our life that require his involvement and time. Each time we interact with God in regards to our life, our job or our marriage, he is not only teaching us how to do it, he is teaching us who we are and who we can become.
As I work with authors that are fathers, I encourage them to write for their children, both natural and spiritual. I do this because I believe every great message of influence begins with a simple desire to influence those whom God has given us to father. It just happens that sometimes those messages are also meant for thousands of others who are just like the children you love and lead.
On this special weekend, as we celebrate Father’s Day, I would like to wish every father a very special day. May God touch you and minister to you in a very personal and meaningful way. I pray that no matter what your past experience has been as a father, you will experience the joy and significance of being the kind of father who parents many into their future destiny.
I would also like to pray for everyone who has lost a father, or never known what it was like to have a father in the first place. It’s not a cliché to say that God is a “father to the fatherless”; it is his actual word and promise. While He may not teach you how to tie a necktie or how to sip tea like a princess, he will teach you much, much more. He will show you how special you really are, and will become the father you may have never had. In him you will find more then you ever may have lost. He is not a substitute—he is the original father of us all.
Happy Father’s Day!
Absolutely beautiful! My Dad died at the young age of 65 from a massive stroke. He was my best friend my entire life, and I lived with him for 6 weeks at St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester when he was dying. It broke my heart when he left me, but I also knew that his paralysis, suffering, and pain were over…no more wheelchairs in heaven? I asked my Mom at that time if I could write a poem and read it at his funetal. (I was 26 years old.) She said, “Connie, you’ll never get through it.” I proceeded to write “Resting in Jesus’ Land” which talked about our loving relationship as well as my Dad’s happiness when he met his 2 sons: Daryl (who died at the age of 29 from a suicide…I came home to him hanging from the tree, and I was only 16 years old…a bitter, ugly divorce was the cause of his final heartwrenching act) and Ronnie (died when he was 17 from a horrible gun accident…that day he was voted President of his Senior Class, President of the Student Council, Homecoming King Candidate and had his Graduation pictures taken that afternoon). ~ Now Dad is with his boys, and they are walking hand in hand. I know some day we’ll meet again. We will rest in Jesus’ Land.” Thank you for sharing this beautiful, inspirational message. It reminds me of the unique love and bond that a father can share with his daughter and/or son. I truly am still my Daddy’s little girl. ?❤?
Connie, thank you for sharing your story. I can not fully imagine what you have been through in your lifetime, but I am so thankful that you are able to have the perspective that you have, given the circumstances you have been through. May God bless you in an incredible way this weekend. I will be praying for you Connie.
God will continue to keep you fit and Grant you with all your good desires, to see that your fellow pastor, leave a written legacy to their generation. God bless you nightly in Jesus name,
Thank you, I couldn’t agree more.
Don:
Thanks! That really touched my heart as a dad. I only get to see my kids around five weeks out of the year since I live out of state and divorced not by choice from their mother. Thanks for encouraging me to write for my kids. Our Florida FFA convention was leave a Leacy. That is what I want to do for my kids and I feel I’m being called to write a book of devotions for young teens going through divorce or have been through a divorce. Have a great Father’s Day.
In Christ,
Chris C. Clausen
Chris, that is awesome! I encourage you to write for your kids and for other kids that can use your wisdom. Have a wonderful Fathers Day!
Loved your story! It is well done in every aspect reflecting the love of All Fathers including our main Father GOD! May God Bless you and yours, today and everyday.
Thank you Marshall
Great thoughts. Thanks.
Thank you Dr. Larry!
Donald, My earthly Father was my inspiration to intimately know and communicate with my Heavenly Father. I can honestly say, that I never heard anyone, ever, say a negative word about my Dad.
I am totally new at authoring a book but hope to have Zulon publish my book “God’s Sweet Pickles and Promises, a poetic Bible Study” sometime in July. There area number of poem/studies in the book that
my Pastor as well as a friend who has a Christian broadcast have used and I hope to touch other lives
through this book that the Lord has inspired me to put together. I know my Dad is looking down and smiling and trust my Heavenly Father will use this book to bless others. As the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 19:14:(NLT) “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”
Dear Dot, I know that your dad would be so proud of you. As a father myself, I know how I feel about my children and to hear you talk about your dad like that, well I am sure that he would be thrilled to know that he inspired you to such depth. As I said in the email and article, fathers want to live beyond their own lives, and reading your comment, I can truly say that your dad is living on through your life now. Blessings to you!