GC Father's Day Message - Celebrate Fathers

“A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed, and yet one of the more valuable assets in our society.”
- Billy Graham

These days the concept of the family is under attack and the role of the father is made light of. Show your support for fatherhood by loving, celebrating and honoring our fathers. Father’s day for some is filled with mixed emotions. Some have grown up with a father and for others the father was absent from the household. Focus this year on celebrating the goodness of fatherhood by honoring all men: father figures, stepfathers, uncles, brothers, grandfathers, and adult male friends. However, remember the greatest father of them all is God the Father.

Did you know how Father’s day originated? A woman name Sonora Smart Dodd from Spokane, Washington, thought of the idea for Father’s Day while listening to a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909. Her father, Henry Jackson Smart, had raised Sonora after her mother died and she wanted him to know how special he was to her. Her father was born in June, so she chose that month to celebrate fathers. The first Father’s day was observed on June 19, 1910. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge supported the idea of a national Father’s Day. Finally in 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father’s Day.

Father’s day was established to celebrate the many contributions and sacrifices fathers make daily for the family. For a Christian father it matters to him how he educates, and guides his children to Jesus Christ. He wants to be a faithful Christian role model for his family. In Ephesians 6:4(AMP) it says, “Fathers, do not irritate and provoke your children to anger [do not exasperate them to resentment], but rear them [tenderly] in the training and discipline and the counsel and admonition of the Lord.” Christian fathers strive to raise their children in the training and admonition of the Lord. God desires children to be nurtured by fathers who love Him. That’s why we should celebrate Fathers for being a good provider for their family. Remember this Father’s day, it’s not all about giving a gift to your father he might simply enjoy hearing you say, “I love you Daddy!”