What Can I Say on Father’s Day?

The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him.

Proverbs 20:7

I wanted to post a special Father’s Day message today, but hesitated because I really did not know what to say. My own father has been dead for ten years. And for ten years, I have tried my best to run from every memory I have of him. For ten years, I have never talked about my father on my own freewill, and I have tried desperately to change the subject as quickly as possible whenever someone brings him up in conversation. Today, however, I have decided to use my story to encourage others, mainly fathers and sons.

Growing up, I had a very distant relationship with my father. I can count on one hand how many times I saw him or even talked to him the last few years of his life. I always thought that I was fine without him, that I didn’t need him in my life. However, I now realize how wrong I was all those years. Children need both parents in their lives. One is not better than the other—they are equal in their importance.

From the very day I was told of my father’s death until about two years ago, I felt nothing but anger and hatred toward my father. I often even told myself that I was glad that he was gone. I have since been able to forgive my father for walking out of my life. And since that day, I have only had feelings of regret—regret that I never got to know him as the man that God always intended him to be.

There is one question that continually runs through my mind. What would my life be like today if my father had not made the foolish choices that he chose to make so many years ago? Would he still be here? Would we be together as a family? I’ll never know the answers to those questions. However, if you are a father, you can give the answers to those questions about yourself to your own children right now.

If I could say one thing to every father in America, it would be this: walk in righteousness and teach your children to walk in a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And to children, I would say love, honor, and cherish your fathers. Make this day special for them because it very well could be the last day you will ever have together.

I do not have the assurance that my father is in Heaven. Therefore I do not know that I will ever see him again. If you are a father and you are reading this today, the greatest gift you could ever give your children is to come to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. And the greatest gift a child could ever give a father is to do the same. If you do not know Jesus Christ as Lord of your life, I plead with you to come to do so today. If you will simply repent of your sins and trust in Jesus Christ alone to save you, He will save you today and keep you saved forever.