From
the banks of Burcham Creek…
Father’s
Day Edition 2026
-
Hayden Childs, Editor
***
Father’s
Day began in America around 1910.
Most
credit “Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane,
Washington,
whose father, a Civil War veteran,
raised
her and her five siblings after their mother
died
in childbirth” for beginning its observance
“Father’s
Day,” (History.com)
It
became a national holiday in 1966, and in 1972
The
third Sunday of June was officially designated
Father’s
Day.
President
Richard M. Nixon made Father’s Day a
Federal
holiday in 1972.
In
the official proclamation, he wrote,
“Let
each American make this Father's Day an
occasion
for renewal of the love and gratitude we
bear
to our fathers, increasing and enduring through
all
the years."
Sonora
Smart Dodd, who passed away in 1978 at
age
96, lived to see her dream become a
national
reality.
(Reference.com)
A
day when we honor those men who helped give us
life
and have nurtured us through life.
***
The
best way to be a good father
To
your children is to be a
Good
husband to their mother.
-
Jay Adams
***
The
common denominator between successes
And
failure seems to be the spiritual depth
And
sincerity of the parents, especially the
Spiritual
depth and sincerity of the father.
There
seems to be a strong correlation
Between
faith, commitment, and sincerity
Of
the family’s head and the spiritual vitality
Of
His adult children.
-
William Farley
***
Some
fathers exasperate their children
By
being overly strict and controlling.
They
need to remember that rearing children
Is
like holding a wet bar of soap…
Too
firm a grasp and it shoots from your hand,
Too
loose a grip and it slides away.
A
gentle but firm hold keeps you in control…
We
ought to begin our fatherhood by holding
The
tiny helpless bar snugly, but as it grows,
Gradually
and wisely loosen our grip.
-
Kent Hughes
***
If
you fail, father, to teach your son to
Fear
God,
The
devil will teach him to hate God.
If
you fail to teach your son to guard
His
mind,
The
devil will gladly teach him to have an
Open
mind.
If
you fail to teach your son to obey his parents,
The
devil will teach him to rebel and break
His
parents’ heart.
If
you fail to teach your son to select his
Companions,
The
devil will gladly choose them for him.
If
you fail to teach your son to control his body,
The
devil will teach him to give it over completely
To
lust.
If
you fail to teach your son to enjoy the
Marriage
partner that God has given him,
The
devil will teach him to destroy the marriage.
If
you fail to teach your son to watch his words,
The
devil will fill his mouth with filth.
If
you fail to teach your son to pursue his work,
The
devil will make his laziness a tool of Hell.
If
you fail to teach your son to manage his money,
The
devil will teach him to waste it on riotous living.
And
if you fail to teach your son to love his neighbor,
The
devil will gladly teach him to love only himself.
-
John MacArthur
***
A
famous cigarette billboard pictures
A
curly-headed, bronze-faced,
Muscular
macho with a cigarette
Hanging
out the side of his mouth.
The
sign says,
“Where
a man belongs.”
That
is a lie.
Where
a man belongs is at the bedside
Of
his children,
Leading
in devotion and prayer.
Where
a man belongs is leading his family
To
the house of God.
Where
a man belongs is up early and alone
With
God seeking vision and direction for
The
family.
-
John Piper
***
Every
father should remember
that
one day his son will follow
his
example rather than his advice.
Charles
F. Kettering
***
The
finest gentleman I have ever known,
and
the most heroic soul, was my father.
Daniel
Webster
***
A
dad is someone who holds you
when
you cry,
Scolds
you when you break the rules,
Shines
with pride when you succeed,
And
has faith in you even when you fail.
-
Nishan Panwar
***
My father used to play with my brother
and me in the yard.
Mother would come out and say,
"You're tearing up
the grass."
"We're not raising grass,"
Dad would reply.
"We're raising
boys."
- Harmon Killebrew
***
My
father gave me the
greatest
gift anyone could
give
another person,
he
believed in me.
Coach
Jim Valvano
***
The
old saying has in it a marvelous truth
‘Like
father, like family.’
Too
often the father is willing to abdicate
his
responsibility for the rearing of the
children
and to roll that back on their mother,
while
he himself is away at the club or lodge.
The
Bible constantly emphasizes the
responsibility
of the father.
There
is a sentence recurring repeatedly
in
the Bible...
‘He
walked in the way of his father.’
1
Kgs.15:25-27
25 Now
Nadab the son of Jeroboam became
king over Israel in the second year of
Asa
king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel
two years.
26 And
he did evil in the sight of the Lord,
and walked in the way of his father,
and in his sin by which he had made
Israel sin.
The
father beat out a path with his steps,
and
the child walked in the ways of his father.
-
Anonymous
***
General
Douglas MacArthur put fatherhood
in
further perspective when he confessed,
“By
profession I am a soldier and take pride
in
that fact.
But
I am prouder…
infinitely
prouder…
to
be a father.
A
soldier destroys in order to build;
the
father only builds,
never
destroys.
The
one has the potentiality of death;
The
other embodies creation and life.
And
while hordes of death are mighty,
the
battalions of life are mightier still.”
***
The
concept we have of our Heavenly Father
is
the concept we have of our earthly father.
This
is why it is vitally important for a father
to
demonstrate to his children what God is
really
like, for the father is God’s representative
here
on earth.
"I
believe in the heart of the
Heavenly
Father is reflected
in
the heart of the earthly father."
-
Nathan Lorick
If
a father is good, kind, loving, forgiving, and just,
a
child will perceive God to be the same.
However,
if the earthly father is unkind, cruel,
and
unloving, the child will perceive the
Heavenly
Father in the same manner.
***
The
Olympian from Great Britain, Derek Redmond,
was
forced out of the 1988 Olympics due to
tendon
injuries, but vowed that the next time he
would
finish the race.
Four
years later, in the 1992 Olympics in
Barcelona,
Spain, Derek fell to the track in the
400-meter
semifinal after about 175 meters,
with
a pulled hamstring.
Waving
off those who offered a stretcher,
He
painfully began to limp around the remainder
of
the course.
Suddenly,
his dad, watching from the bleachers,
dashed
onto the track, put his shoulder under
his
son’s arm, and together they finished the race,
long
after the other runners had crossed the finish
line.
Both father and son received a standing ovation
from
the crowd. Derek Redmond needed his
father’s
help, and he got it.
***
Gen.
18:19
19 For I have known him,
in order that he may
command
his children and his household after him,
that they
keep the way of the Lord,
to do
righteousness and justice, …”
In
Prov. 4:1, the writer said,
1 Hear, my children, the instruction of a
father,
And give attention to know understanding;
Eph.
6:1-4 we are told,
1 Children, obey your
parents in the Lord,
for this
is right.
2 “Honor your father and mother,”
which is the first commandment with promise:
3 “that it may be well with you and you
may
live long
on the earth.”
4 And you, fathers, do
not provoke your
children
to wrath, but bring them up in
the
training and admonition of the Lord.
Prov.
22:6
6 Train
up a child in the way he should go,
And when
he is old he will not depart from it.
Deut.
5:29
29 Oh, that they had such
a heart in them
that they
would fear Me and always keep
all My
commandments, that it might be
well with
them and with their children forever!
The
writer of Hebrews in 12:5-11 says . . .
5 And you have forgotten
the exhortation which
speaks to
you as to sons:
“My son,
do not despise the chastening of the Lord,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
6 For whom the Lord loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.”
7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you
as with
sons; for what son is there whom a
father
does not chasten?
8 But if you are without
chastening,
of which
all have become partakers,
then you
are illegitimate and not sons.
9 Furthermore, we have
had human fathers
who
corrected us, and we paid them respect.
Shall we
not much more readily be in subjection
to the
Father of spirits and live?
10 For they indeed for a
few days chastened us
as seemed
best to them, but He for our profit,
that we may be partakers of His holiness.
11 Now no chastening seems
to be joyful
for the
present, but painful; nevertheless,
afterward
it yields the peaceable fruit of
righteousness
to those who have been trained by it.
(Psa.
103:8, 13)
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.
13 As a
father pities his children,
So
the Lord pities those who fear Him.
***
Gen.
William Nelson,
a
Union general in the Civil War,
was
consumed with the battles in Kentucky
when
a brawl ended up in his being shot,
mortally,
in the chest.
He
had faced many battles,
but
the fatal blow came while he was relaxing
with
his men.
As
such, he was caught fully unprepared.
As
men ran up the stairs to help him,
The
general had just one phrase,
"Send
for a clergyman; I wish to be baptized."
He
never had time as an adolescent or young man.
He
never had time as a private or after he became
a
general.
And
his wound did not stop or slow down the war.
Everything
around him was left virtually unchanged…
except
for the general's priorities.
With
only minutes left before he entered eternity,
The
one thing he cared about was preparing for eternity.
He
wanted to be baptized.
Thirty
minutes later he was dead.
-
Christian Times, October 3, 1994, p. 26.
***
The
Last Call…
Life
at best is very brief,
Like the falling of a leaf,
Like the binding of a sheaf,
Be in time!
Fleeting days are telling fast
That the die will soon be cast,
And the fatal line be passed,
Be in time!
Fairest flowers soon decay,
Youth and beauty pass away;
O you have not long to stay,
Be in time!
While God’s Spirit bids you come,
Sinner, do not longer roam,
Lest you seal your hopeless doom,
Be in time!
– Charles Harrison Mason
***
When
Christ calls a man,
He
bids him come and die.
There
are different kinds of dying,
It
is true;
But
the essence of discipleship is
Contained
in these words.
-
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
