Worship Service – Sunday, June 15, 2025
One evening, a father of five came home from work with a toy. He called all of his five children together and asked them, Who is the most obedient one out of all of you? Who never talks back to mom? And who does everything mom says to do? Whoever does these things will receive this toy. There were a few seconds of silence. And then all the children said together, you get to have it, daddy. Because you’re the only one who never talks back to mom, who does what mom says!
Father’s Day is a time when dads have their day. Father’s Day cards are filled with messages of relax, you’ve earned it, thank you, and images of a man sitting in front of the television with their feet propped up in their recliner with their trusty remote favorite beer or choice of beverage, and choice of snacks at their side. For many, Father’s Day is a happy time full of celebration. But for others, it can stir up feelings of grief, disappointment, or pain. Whether you’re grieving a dad, negotiating a strained relationship, or longing to be a dad yourself, you’re not alone.
What does it really mean to be a father? I believe that being a father is one of the toughest jobs in the world, especially being a good father. As a daughter, I was estranged from my father for a time, and you may be surprised to hear what I have to say. Being a great father is not easy in our society. As a whole, our culture has lost the practice of good manners and being civil to one another. There is an overall lack of respect, especially between children and parents. Children talk down to their fathers. Wives talk down to their husbands. Other people talk down to fathers, belittling them and being disrespectful. Some commercials may even show fathers as being wimps.
I witnessed this type of behavior one time when I was at a rock climb in Utah with Marlon and my father. A young man that I knew who was in his late teens was driving a Jeep in a competition that he and his father had built together. His father was helping him navigate the trail as they did in this competition. The young man became frustrated and started yelling obscenities at his father, who had taken time to be with him and help him. The fault was not his father’s, but was with his own inability to navigate the course. But the young man, feeling privileged and superior, took his father for granted. And in my eyes, he treated him very poorly. I was mortified at the behavior of this young man towards his father, who was giving his time and money to this. In my eyes, he was very selfish, entitled, and an unappreciative young man. The whole incident gave me a new appreciation for my own father standing next to me and caused me to reflect on the things of the past.
I, as most of us did, grew up in a different era than today. My father went to work as my mother stayed home. There were often times because of my father’s job, being a pilot, that he was gone several days in a row and my mother was left to raise the family. But he was not an absentee father. When he was home, he would let my mother sleep in and he would get up and make breakfast and take us to school. He was active in our school activities and our activities outside of school. My dad also offered emotional support. I was very fortunate to have both of my parents that were good parents in my life. Did they make mistakes? You betcha! But who doesn’t? Living in an upper-middle class, two-parent household for 18 years was normal. Then one day, the bottom dropped out. My parents were divorcing. A new set of rules started to apply.
Whose fault was it? With my mom’s debilitating depression, not to mention me feeling abandoned because my father left, leaving me to deal with my mom who blamed my dad for everything. So naturally, that is the direction my focus went, was to blame my dad. So for many years, my relationship with my dad was strained until one day I sat down and took time to really look at the situation. I missed my dad and wanted a relationship with him. My siblings and I had been privileged, entitled brats only caring for my dad for what he could provide. I had forgotten all the quality time I had spent with my dad over the years as he was teaching me all kinds of things, how he was loving and caring and taking time with me, how much I really liked him and was like him in so many ways. I realized at one time that we were the only two same people in our household. I thank God that he made me see that and I renewed my relationship with my father and had many wonderful years with him as two adults and as well as father and daughter.
The most important part is that you learn from your parents’ mistakes and you apply that to your life and to your own parenting when you become a parent. The strength of the father in the family unit is critical. I think every person wants to hear from their father that he is proud of them. Even Jesus wanted to hear these words.
Luke 3:22, “And the spirit descended upon him in a bodily form like a dove. This was at his baptism. And a voice came out of heaven. ‘You are my beloved son, and you I am well pleased.’”
Just as God is a loving and guiding father to us all, Our earthly fathers have taught us invaluable lessons about faith, love, and perseverance, and I heard that this morning. We need to honor these good fathers with gratitude and respect, acknowledging their roles as a reflection of God’s grace in our lives. That God the Father has made himself God, our Father, means that he is personally emotionally and even sacrificially involved with us.
Fatherhood can pass down a rich spiritual inheritance binding our hearts to God. Fatherhood is also how training, nurture, and wise correction influences the rising generations and we’re missing a lot of that when fathers are not in the home. To be a father is a sacred privilege and a high calling. Jim Gaffigan came up with a funny saying about fathers. There should be a children’s song, he said, “If you’re happy and you know it, keep it to yourself and let your dad watch the football game”.
Steve Martin was quoted as, “a father carries pictures in his wallet where his money used to be”.
Charles Wadworth’s quote, “by the time a man realizes that his father was right, his son, he has a son who thinks he’s wrong”.
And boy is that true. One more, “Being a great father is like shaving. No matter how good you shave today”, men will understand that, we’ll understand that too with our legs. “You have to do it again tomorrow”.
It’s only when you grow up and step back from a father or leave him for your own home. It’s only then you can measure his greatness and fully appreciate it. Getting back to the joke earlier. Who among us is the most obedient to our Heavenly Father?
The answer is. Jesus. We cannot be totally obedient on our own. That is why God sent Jesus to help us.
God is our Heavenly Father. His role as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer actively involves our lives as believers. This understanding is rooted in the teaching of Jesus, who referred to God as Father and encouraged his followers to do the same. God the Father is always reaching out and gathering in sinners as his own dear children.
Through the grace of Jesus, his Son, God our Father lovingly adopted us as his own children forever. The only way we can understand how wonderful it is to have God as our Heavenly Father is – The only person who dares to wake up a king at 3 a.m. for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access to God, our Father. We can go to him anytime, anywhere, for any kind of problem. We can be angry at him, and we are still his children. May fathers everywhere be faithful moment by moment to pursue, through God’s grace, the highest calling to be the best father humanly possible. And we, as their children, love, honor, and respect them always, as we do our Heavenly Father.
Amen. Amen.
