Father Knows . . . Really?

In a few days, most of us will celebrate Father’s Day. One day a year where we can take time to recognize the fathers in our life. For me, with my own father gone, Father’s Day is best celebrated by not celebrating. Not because he is gone but due to not wanting anyone making a fuss over me. Just to be left to myself with no “honey do list” or any unfinished projects. Let’s make it a day to do what I want. I know that many fathers are in the same boat. Okay guys, speaking about boats, why don’t you go fishing if you would like.
I believe that we have Father’s Day only because we have Mother’s Day and someone, who had a great father, wanted to do the same thing for her father. I will still say, as one very wise man said, “Thanks honey, but, no thanks.”
For every argument there is another compelling rebuttal. Some will say, and they do, “it’s only one day and we want you to know that we really appreciate what you do and have done for us.” Someone once even pulled up the scripture that says, “Honour your father and mother . . . ” Ex 20:12, Matt 15:4, 19:19, Eph. 6:2. Okay, it’s mentioned nine times and the first one is definitely a command.
All right already. I get the point. But, and you knew this was coming. What if your father was not that Jim Anderson of “Father Knows Best,” or Ward Cleaver of “Leave It to Beaver?” And be honest fellows, sometimes we are not the best fathers on the block. I am looking at myself as well. Even though we can say that biology does not make a father, we have to admit that most fathers do the best they can.
And that my friends, is what makes a father a dad. It is someone who does the best he can with what he has and what he has seen in not only his own father but all the other fathers he has know through life.
When I was young, and a child of a single mom, I looked to my friend’s fathers. There was no roll model in my home and it was necessary for me to observe my buddy’s dads as well. After all these years, two men still come to my mind. I saw Mr. Smith and Mr. Spence every week at church. Each of them by the way, raised a son who became a minister. What I observed in them as they fathered their children (and me to some degree), instilled in me something of what I wished for when I would eventually be a father to my own children.
As we are commanded to honour our fathers, I ask the fathers out there to be all that God intended us to be as we reflect the best father of all, God our Father!
Something to think about.
Rob