FATHER'S DAY, EVERY DAY

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Well, Father’s Day is upon us once again, a day that causes me to give thanks to my Heavenly Father for the honor to be a father to two wonderful girls. It also provides the opportunity to give thanks for my father who passed away in 2011 and there are certainly a lot of memories from our many years together.

Many of those memories are connected to baseball and the Pittsburgh Pirates, our home team in the small western Pennsylvania town I grew up in. I believe it was in 2007 when my wife Grace and I visited my parents and we decided to make the one and a half hour drive to the southwest and watch a game. I did the driving and as we traveled in the car, my father sitting in the passenger side seat, I couldn’t help but reminisce about growing up in my younger days when he would drive me to games, first at Forbes Field and then to Three Rivers Stadium.

Of course, early on I was only learning the game and it was always so great to watch and listen to Dad not only teach me the basic intricacies of the game but also share the memories he had about going to games when he was my age.

Outside of sports, I also cherish these other memories of my father:

- I cherish him for teaching me the importance of hard work, always giving an honest day’s labor for an honest day’s pay.

- I cherish him for never hesitating to correct me when I needed it, especially if I would become disrespectful to either him or my mother.

- I cherish him for bending over backwards to help anyone in need. Indeed, he was a father who was a cheerful giver and I learned to be likewise through his example.

- Finally, I cherish him for never ceasing to love and support me, especially after I had been serving the country for so many years in the United States Navy. I’ll never forget about how he would talk highly of me and my service to anyone who would listen and I can only pray that my own daughters feel that I love and support them as well as he did me. .

Indeed, I was so very blessed to first have had a great dad and then become a dad myself and in the end translation, we both gained the chance through the divine Father of us both, our Father in Heaven. For ultimately, it was because of His fatherhood that we could know how to properly care for the children He entrusted to our care.

Today and every day, we need to all realize and profess that God is the Father of us all and in Him, we have the best dad ever. As Christian believers, the scriptures make it clear that we are His children and thus no believer is ever left fatherless.

I write these words today fully understanding that not everyone has a great testimony to share about their worldly father and it’s a clear and undeniable fact that many dads have shirked the responsibility placed upon them by the Lord. This makes it all the more important to place one’s faith in Jesus as Savior and be counted as a true child of the God Most High, the Heavenly Father who has promised to never leave or forsake any of His children, the Heavenly Father who never ceases to love, care for, and provide for His beloved.

Friends, let us see how every day is Father’s Day and may we echo the praises found in the scriptures regarding this truth, praises found in 1 John where we read this in the first verse of the third chapter:

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1

Amen. 

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.