Giving Dad His Due

This week’s blog is dedicated to all the fathers who are doing the best they can to provide for their families. It’s for the fathers who understand their role in the household and tirelessly handle their responsibilities. It’s in appreciation for the men who put God first in their lives and trust the Holy Spirit to guide their decision-making. Believe me, these men are out there.

A growing trend is to use Father’s Day as a platform to point out all that is wrong with families in our society. In particular, it’s often used as a sounding board to air grievances against fathers. This week, I’ve heard quite a few statistics about absentee dads, deadbeat dads, and how the declining presence of men in families is corrupting the young people in homes across America. In fact, it’s all made to sound very hopeless.

Yet, when I look around, I see so many men who are striving to do the best they can for their families. Men who have been put out of work in this economy, but have taken on jobs for which they are overqualified, just to support their families. Men who are raising their sons and daughters on their own, but are unrecognized in the “single parent” conversation. Men who have married women with children and have become fathers, not by seed, but by selection. All of these are men who are often overlooked and undervalued in favor of sensational headlines that reinforce the downfall of the modern family.

Today, in some churches, the pastor may ask for all the fathers to stand in recognition of Father’s Day. And there will actually be some women who stand as well. “I’m both a mother AND a father to my kids,” they will contend. While there are certainly plenty of women who are raising kids all alone, and doing a commendable job by themselves, there is a time to recognize their efforts. It’s called Mother’s Day.

Exodus 20:12 tells us to honor our father and our mother. On Father’s Day, let’s give dad his due. Let’s really take the time to recognize the men in our communities who are trying to do the right thing.

I thank my Heavenly Father for the fathers on earth who put Him first!