Fathers come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and temperament. Some fathers have hair of brown, black, blond, red, or grayed with wisdom, and others have none at all. A father’s voice can range from down deep in the basement to highest of tenors and anywhere in between. Some speak with authority, some hardly speak.
As I look at the many examples that I have come across in my lifetime, I have seen fathers that are tender, who love their children and their wife and give of their time. I have witnessed fathers that are gruff, profane, and can’t be bothered with children or wife. And then I’ve encountered those fathers that are too busy making a living and don’t have time to show tenderness or love—“I will one of these days.” This last father, his time is taken up with the mundane things of this world—job, working long hours to give their children what they never had, building a bigger, better house, filling it with the latest and greatest gadgets, stuffing it chuck full of things instead of love.
What type of dad are you?
If the first, wonderful, keep it up. If the second or third, regardless how old you are, even if the children are grown and gone, you can change and become the father God wants you to be.
As a dad, you have an example even if you weren’t raised by a Godly father. Our heavenly Father is the prototype, the model, the pattern of what and who you should be. Our Father worked hard then ceased from His labor—took a day off even walked in the garden in the cool of the evening enjoying fellowship with his children. I can picture a Father that even laughs, takes pleasure in His children, even finds time to listen, and … sacrificed His only Son for us. He’s always available. He’s always tenderhearted. He’s the embodiment of love.
In Ecclesiastes 3:1-14 the word speaks of a time for everything. As a father you are to take time for the seasons in your life. Take time for your wife, take time for your children, and enjoy the gifts that God has placed into your hands. And instead of stuff, how about your time, your attention, your admiration, even your love to those that are the closest and are watching you as their example.
My prayer for each father, grandfather, and even great-grandfather or father-to-be, is that today you will make time for those that your Father has given to you and become an example of His love to them.
Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers, and to my husband Harry, the father that is number one in my heart.
Blessings to all fathers,
Janice Olson

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