Today is another special time on the calendar and in the hearts of many families. Father’s Day has been celebrated in the United States for over 100 years. It was inaugurated to complement Mother’s Day in celebrating male parenting and fatherhood. Its first celebration was in the Spokane, Washington YMCA on June 19, 1910, founded by Sonora Smart Dodd. Her father, William Jackson Smart, a Civil War veteran, was a single parent who raised his six children there. It did not have much success initially, even in Spokane. Most of the populace resisted the holiday at first, perceiving it as just an attempt by merchants to replicate the commercial success of Mother’s Day, and local newspapers frequently featured sarcastic attacks and jokes about it.
In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson wanted to make the holiday official, but Congress resisted, fearing that it would become commercialized. President Calvin Coolidge recommended in 1924 that the day be observed by the nation, but stopped short of issuing a national proclamation. In 1957, Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith wrote a proposal accusing Congress of ignoring fathers for 40 years while honoring mothers. In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. Six years later, the day was made a permanent national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972.
In a day when the family, as God planned it, is slowly becoming undermined and destroyed by a secular and sinful world, it is good for our society to give recognition and respect to our parents, both mother and father. Of all people, Christians should feel a sense of gratitude and indebtedness to those parents who have provided for us, supported us, encouraged us, loved us, prayed for us, and forgiven us through the years.
Today we give deserved recognition to our fathers and grandfathers. Not one among us is perfect, nor should we try to be. However, we should try to be good fathers. And “good” covers a lot of areas such as example, the most effective way of teaching children. What children need, above everything (money, education, career), is a good example. “Like father, like son” is a catchy phrase, but generally, it’s true. A father’s interests, or lack of interest, will be reflected in his children, whether it be sports, work ethics, habits, integrity, or religious faith. What we all remember most about our fathers is what they did, or failed to do. Fathers, what will your children remember about you?
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