Husbands and Fathers

                                                           

Chuckle: “Wandering inside a pet store, I stopped in front of a bird cage to admire a parakeet. We watched each other for a few minutes before it asked, ‘Can’t you talk?’” –Shirley Brown

Quote:  It is easier for a father to have children than for children to have a real father.” –Pope John XXIII Reader’s Digest November 1960

HUSBANDS AND FATHERS

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her”  (Ephesians 5:25 NIV).  “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord”  (Ephesians 6:4 NLT).

I believe great husbands are likely to be great fathers. Since we don’t celebrate a “Husband’s Day,” let’s focus on being a great husband in this Father’s Day message. Rather than my commenting on our Scripture verses today, I think you will be touched by this letter from Ronald Reagan to his son, Michael, on the occasion of Michael’s wedding in June 1971.

Dear Mike:

    You’ve heard all the jokes that have been rousted by all the “unhappily marrieds.” But there is another viewpoint. You have entered into the most meaningful relationship there is in all human life. It can be whatever you decide to make it.

    Some men feel their masculinity can be proven only if they play out in their own lives all the locker-room stories, smugly confident that what a wife doesn’t know won’t hurt her. The truth is, somehow, way down inside, a wife does know, and with that knowing, some of the magic of the relationship disappears. There are more men griping about marriage who kicked the whole thing away themselves than there can ever be wives deserving of blame. There is an old law of physics that you can get out of a thing only as much as you put in it. The man who puts into the marriage only half of what he owns will get that out.

    Let me tell you how really great is the challenge of proving your masculinity and charm with one woman for the rest of your life. It takes quite a man to remain attractive and to be loved by a woman who has heard him snore, seen him unshaven, tended him while he was sick, and washed his dirty underwear. Do that and keep her still feeling a warm glow, and you will know some very beautiful music. If you truly love a girl, you shouldn’t ever want her to feel, when she sees you greet a girl you both know, that humiliation of wondering if she was someone who caused you to be late coming home.

    Mike, you know better than many what an unhappy home is and what it can do to others. Now you have a chance to make it come out the way it should. There is no greater happiness for a man than approaching a door at the end of a day knowing someone on the other side of that door is waiting for the sound of his footsteps.

Love, Dad

PS. You’ll never get in trouble if you say “I love you” at least once a day.

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We pray Father’s Day 2015 will bring much joy to each husband and father along with a renewed commitment to be a godly husband and father for the sake of those he loves most.

Love, Jerry & Dotse