The other day I heard two little boys arguing on the playground about how brave and strong each of their Dads were.  It almost came to fisticuffs between them as they tried to regale one another about how “great” their Dad was over and above the other Dad.  I love the fact that in each of those little boys’ eyes, their Dad was a super hero.

While Mother’s Day still surpasses Father’s Day in popularity (at least amongst the card sellers and florists), Fathers are equally deserving of praise.  Accordingly, some credit the first Father’s Day celebration to Sonora Smart Dodd for honouring her father, a veteran of the Civil War, who raised his family as a single Dad when his wife died giving birth to their sixth child.    To show her appreciation for her father’s efforts, after listening to a church sermon on Mother’s Day in 1909, Sonora initially suggested that there should be a day to celebrate him and other dads like him in the State in which they lived and farmed.  After much campaigning, the first Father’s Day was held in Washington State on June 19, 1910.  Although Father’s Day was celebrated throughout the U.S. as an unofficial day for Dads after that date, it was in 1966, Lyndon B. Johnson, through an executive order, designated the third Sunday in June as the official day to celebrate Father’s Day.  It wasn’t until 1972, during the Nixon administration, that Father’s Day was officially recognized as a national holiday.

I have enjoyed these many years seeing what tokens of appreciation my three kids will come up with to honour their Dad.  I usually get flowers and overly-sentimental cards for MY special day, but my husband can get anything from cards that emit bodily noises when opened, to power tools.  Unfortunately, while I am pampered for the most part on Mother’s Day, my husband stations himself at the BBQ grill on HIS special day and hosts the family dinner.  Somehow he never seems to mind!

So to all the great Dads out there, have a Happy Father’s Day!  Let these verses encourage you today and everyday!

Genesis 18:19  “For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”

1 Timothy 3:2-5  “Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.  He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?)

Proverbs 4:1-4  “Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding.  I give you sound learning, so do not forsake my teaching.  For I too was a son to my father, still tender, and cherished by my mother.  Then he taught me, and he said to me, “Take hold of my words with all your heart; keep my commands, and you will live.”

Joshua 1:9  “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Deuteronomy 6:1-9  “These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life.  Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.  Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.  Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

Ephesians 6:11-18  “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.  Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”

Psalm 103:13  “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.”

Joshua 24:15  “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Proverbs 3:11-12  “My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.”

Deuteronomy 1:29-31  “Then I said to you, “Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the wilderness. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.”

Proverbs 14:26  “Whoever fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for their children it will be a refuge.”

Psalm 127:3-5  “Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him.  Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth.  Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.  They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court.”

Proverbs 23:24  “The father of a righteous child has great joy; a man who fathers a wise son rejoices in him.”

Proverbs 22:6  “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”

Ephesians 5:25-37  “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.  In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.  After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church—for we are members of his body.  “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”  This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.  However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”

Ephesians 6:4  “ Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 16:13  “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.”

1 Chronicles 29:17  “ I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things I have given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you.”

Proverbs 10:9  “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out.”

Proverbs 17:27  “The one who has knowledge uses words with restraint, and whoever has understanding is even-tempered.”

Proverbs 20:7  “The righteous lead blameless lives; blessed are their children after them.”

1 Thessalonians 2:11-12  “ For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children,  encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.”

Luke 15:20-24  “So he got up and went to his father.  “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.   “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’   “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.  Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.”

Psalm 128:3-4  “Your wife will be like a fruitful vine ithin your house;
your children will be like olive shoots around your table.  Yes, this will be the blessing for the man who fears the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 13  “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.  Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.  When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.  And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

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