Father’s Day is to me is about being thankful to the men in our lives who take on the responsibility and obligations of guiding us through life. Most of the time, taking that responsibility begins at the birth of their child. But, sometimes God gives children their father through other paths.
When a man becomes a father, he takes on new obligations and expectations. I do not know this from firsthand experience, for I do not have any children. However, I have experienced the range of consequences of those responsibilities, from being forgotten to the impact of when a man steps up and owns them.
Father’s Day as God Intended
This holiday is a time to express to our fathers the gratitude we have for the sacrifices they made. It is a time to elevate our relationships with them to the forefront of our hearts and minds. God showed us the importance of this relationship clearly throughout scripture and capitalizing it in the Gospels. It gives us an intimate view of the relationship between Christ, the Son, and God the Father. Jesus gave thanks to the Father as an example to us. Father’s Day is the time we designate to thank our earthly fathers and our Heavenly Father, just as our Savior did.
My Journey
To understand my perspective on Father’s Day, you need to know a bit about my relationship with my father. Initially, there was no intention of him becoming my “father.” He was the pastor of the church that sat across the street from our foster home placement in a small community outside of Birmingham. Before moving in with him and Mrs. Scott, we would occasionally meander across the street to attend services, especially when they were offering to feed us. So inevitably, we would come across the broad-shouldered, white-haired preacher with his red tie and pin-striped suit. The most well-dressed man I had ever met. He was (and is to this day) a fiery, passionate man in the pulpit, which made him seem like an intimidating, moral celebrity of sorts. At the time, I was a ten-year-old boy with no understanding of church culture or etiquette. To me, he was the equivalent of a school principal, but with God on his side.
A New Family
Over the next year, my siblings and I began to attend more and more services. I remember one Sunday he was preaching a sermon and asked the congregation a rhetorical question. “When does a coal mine become a coal mine?” I raised my hand as I would at school and blurted out loudly, “When they find coal!” He was making a point about permits or something along those lines, but this interjection took him entirely off-guard. The congregation found this exchange to be hilarious, and that was the first time my future dad and I really connected. Eventually, our foster home could not continue to care for all of us. So, he and my future mother took my siblings and me into their home when we were about to be placed into separate foster homes. Thus began the journey of CB Scott becoming my dad.
Instilling Character
Over the next several years, he took on every obstacle of being the father I had never had. Before him, no man had ever shown me that he loved me and tried to build me into anything valuable. His goal was primarily to share with me the love of our Savior, then to provide the spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical resources to break the cycle of the broken families from which I came.
My father always said that he is “in the man business.” By this, he meant that he was determined to instill the character in me that I would need to be a strong man of God. Without the efforts and sacrifices my dad made while raising me; I would likely have become another foster care statistic. According to the world, I was destined to be lost and hopeless. Instead, my dad shared grace with me and taught me how to do the same for my children one day. For this, I am eternally grateful.
Being Thankful
Father’s Day is about being thankful for the man or men in our lives that stepped up and shouldered the responsibility of fatherhood for us. It is about recognizing the sacrifices that those men made to be a good figure in our lives. We are called by God to love our fathers and mothers every day, but this holiday is specifically to recognize the role and impact fathers have. As followers of Christ, it is about being grateful to our Heavenly Father for those men.
Father’s Day is Especially Meaningful to Me
Father’s Day is especially meaningful to me. I was on a path not to have a father to care for me or show me the love of God. I was not supposed to have someone invest their time. To teach me the value of hard work and hold me accountable for my actions. I am so grateful for my dad, and I recognize I am so blessed to have him in my life. Not everyone has a man in their life that fills the father role in their life. However, we all have access to the love and grace of Jesus Christ. We can all unite in one Heavenly Father, and all be thankful to access to His love and guidance.
