On this day we honor dads, lets step it up a bit. Dads can celebrate by taking their families to church, the first of what will become a regular habit for those without a history and a renewed commitment for those with the custom of being in our Father's House every week. Dads can show forth the most essential and foremost role of fatherhood -- not great grilling tricks or fixit skills or a big chair or claim to the TV on game day or even going to work (there may be nothing wrong with these but that is not what fatherhood is about). Dads can show their character and how well they understand their vocation by being a faithful Christian husband to their wives and a faithful Christian leader of the home for their children. Dads can demonstrate a self-less and servant heart for their wives and children, neighbors and friends, and even the stranger on the street. Dads can teach their children to pray and make sure their children know the story of the Scriptures -- from patriarch and prophet and promise to the Savior who kept their word and by His obedient life and life-giving death and might resurrection rescued us from sin, death, and the devil. Dads can show reverence for the things of God and especially for the duty of the Christian to be around the Lord's Word and Table on the Lord's Day.
And those who want to honor their dads will do this. They will go with their dad to church, taking up the new found discipline of weekly worship or continuing the familiar pattern in their own lives. They will honor their dads not with a sappy card but with an acknowledgement of the gift of a witness to the faith and a promise to be the a witness in their own homes. They will by loving their own spouses faithfully and raising their children in the faith. They will pray with their dads on Father's Day and keep on praying for dad and for those God has placed in their care all year long. They will honor the Lord with words that confess Jesus Christ and with works that show forth the light of His saving work to those around them.
Yes, we can grill and laugh and enjoy a beer. Hopefully not just on Father's Day. But underneath it all we cannot forget that the primary role of the father is to teach the Heavenly Father to their children, bringing the love of Christ into the home, and bring those in the home to know their Father's House as they know their own. Maybe I am dreaming. I hope I am not. Happy Father's Day!
My own father was not a regular at church. He did want his children to go, and we did go but less frequently as young adults. Later, in my forties I changed from being Catholic to Protestant, eventually to the LCMS. My father actually went to church more regularly in his old age, and died at 95. I would say he was a good and decent Christian man, and had a strong faith in the Lord. He also had a few psychological scars and went through PSTD as a result of some pretty horrible things he experienced in World War Two. Although regular attendance at church is a good thing, God judges each of us according to His own sesnse of grace and mercy.
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