Sunday

The History of Father’s Day

The first known celebration of Father’s Day was on July 5, 1908 in Fairmont, West Virginia, where it was commemorated at William Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South – now known as Central United Methodist Church. Grace Golden Clayton is believed to have suggested it to her pastor after a deadly explosion in nearby Monongah in December, killing 361 men.

It was also during a sermon in 1909 that Sonora Smart Dodd became inspired by Mother’s Day. After the death of her mother, Sonora and her siblings were raised by their father William Jackson Smart, a Civil War veteran. Sonora wanted to show how thankful she was to her father and, because William was born in June, she worked to have the first Father’s Day celebrated on June 19, 1910.

In 1924, President Coolidge recommended that Father’s Day become a national holiday. President Johnson designated the third Sunday of June to be Father’s Day in 1966. It was not until 1972 that President Nixon instituted Father’s Day as a national observance.

Did You Know – Roses are the official flower on Father’s Day, red for fathers who were still living and white for those who have passed on.

Father

MARCH OF THE Penguins follows the Emperor Penguins of Antarctica on their incredible journey through ice and snow to mating grounds inland…

This beautiful documentary captures the drama of these three-foot-high birds.

Once the penguins have made the trek and the females have produced their eggs, a remarkable exchange occurs. Through an intricate dance, each mother swaps her egg into the father’s care. At this point the father becomes responsible for the egg and must keep it warm and elevated off the ice for weeks on end.

The camera shows the father securing the eggs on top of their feet and sheltering them against the cold. Morgan Freeman narrates: “Now begins one of nature’s most incredible and endearing role reversals. It is the penguin male who will tend the couple’s single egg. While the mother feeds and gathers food to bring back for the newborn, it is the father who will shield the egg from the violent winds and cold. He will make a next for the egg atop his own claws, keeping it safe and warm beneath a flap of skin on his belly. And he will do this for more than two months… By the time their vigil on top of the egg is over, the penguin fathers will have gone without food for 125 days and they will have endured one of the most violent and deadly winters on earth, all for the chick.” (Leadership)

“And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4).

Posted by Mike Benson

Posted by Mike Benson

Father

GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR once said, “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. . . . It is my hope that my son, when I am gone, will remember me not from the battlefield but in the home repeating with him our simple daily prayer, ‘Our Father who art in Heaven.'”

You can not just accidentally be a good father; you’ve got to be proactive about it. You’ve got to plunge into the task of fathering with the same kind of energy and drive you apply to your corporate goals, your business goals – or your golf game. It’s great to try to influence the culture, but the best way of influencing the culture is to influence the home and raise your children in the nurture and instruction of the Lord.

Is there something you need to cancel in order to be with your kids this week?

Small boys become big men through the influence of big men who care about small boys. (Anonymous)

“And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4).

Posted by Mike Benson

Cheryl Hughes Green shared the following:

F.A.T.H.E.R.S.:

“F”aithful

“A”lways there

“T”rustworthy

“H”onoring

“E”ever-loving

“R”ighteous

“S”upportive

Author Unknown