Celebrating Dads

In the church too often we don't practice equality. Mother’s Day is a big day. Lots of people come and you can’t get a seat in a restaurant for the life of you after church. On Father’s Day though the crowds are usually smaller and most people chose to stay home and BBQ. On Mother’s Day preachers usually preach wonderful sermons about mothers; extolling the virtues of everything that mothers do for us. Thanking them for what they sacrifice and acknowledging all that they do for us – and after mother’s day we all leave with a warm fuzzy feeling. The only residual guilt people accumulate during a mother’s day sermon is the guilt of not having done enough to humour their moms!

But on Father’s Day we preachers have a tendency to unload on dads for not fulfilling their responsibilities, not rising to a higher standard, not manning up enough and so on. It’s like too many preachers have grown up with father’s who told them that they never measured up and are using their sermons to return the favour. I read this week about one dad who when he left the service after such a father’s day sermon said to his wife, “if this is Father’s Day, then the first day of duck season ought to be called ‘Duck’s Day.’”  Too often Father’s day is open season on Dads.

Last Sunday evening as I started to pray and prepare for this week’s sermon I came to the conviction that as a dad I need a little encouragement and praise from time to time too. The fact of the matter is that despite the failings of fathers in the world these days most of us work really hard at being good dads. When Jesus talks about prayer to our Heavenly Father in Luke 11 he reasons that we can trust God because generally fatherhood is a good thing, and dads want to treat their kids well. Well I know many men in my life that are good fathers, and despite their shortcomings they aspire to be good men who raise up their children the best way they know how. We men are often trying our level best to be good dads - so this year, instead of berating them for their failings, I want to take a Sunday and give Fathers the Mother's day treatment. This Sunday we celebrate dads and all they do for us and look at what we're doing that the scriptures affirm as "good". 

See you on Sunday.