Celebrating Fathers

Welcome to another week!

The Atlantic Grange is having a blood drive Wednesday, June 18 from 3 to 7 p.m. at the International Order of Odd Fellows Hall. Please call Virginia Shields at (814) 382-8584 to schedule an appointment. Grange members will provide rides to the blood drive. If you need a ride please call Virginia Shields.

June 8 was Pentecost. Believers celebrate the birth of the Christian church on this day.

The Holy Spirit was Jesus’ gift to those who worshiped him and gave their lives to him. God sent the Holy Spirit to the Christians gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit gave the disciples and Christ followers the courage and the words to “turn the world upside down” (Acts 17:6 NKJV).

Vacation Bible School is June 23-27 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at Fallowfield United Methodist Church. Expect a Bible lesson, crafts, high-energy songs, outside games, and snacks every night. The program will be at 7 p.m. on Friday, June 27. All the kids will sing the songs they’ve learned during the week and recite the Bible verses they learned.

After the program there will be a hot dog roast. It’s lots of fun and it’s a good way to meet church members from Fallowfield United Methodist.

Please encourage all the kids you know to attend. You can register by calling Joyce Moore at (724) 932-3871 or by coming a few minutes early on June 23.

June 15 was Father’s Day. I hope you spent time with your dad. I know some of my readers’ fathers have passed away. Father’s Day is a hard day for you.

I’m blessed to have my father still with me. He has had two serious illnesses in the past 13 years, but God has spared him. I’m so thankful he did.

In our culture dads get very little credit. TV shows present them as bungling idiots. Mom is always the smart one; Dad gets fooled by the kids or makes childish decisions. It’s sickening. This negative portrayal of fathers and men in general is feminism’s answer for patriarchal societies dominating history.

I think dads deserve way more credit for the roles they play in their children’s lives.

My husband is nothing like the dads on today’s sit coms. He’s smart: photographic memory smart. He is also strong: he can easily push a stalled lawn mower in neutral forty feet into our shed. He once carried a 32-inch screen TV from the car to our apartment. This was way before flat screens. It must’ve weighed 60 lbs.

When we first moved back home, he commuted from Jamestown to the Cleveland Clinic five days a week, sometimes six or seven if there was overtime available. That’s a four-hour drive, folks. He did this so we could raise our daughter in Fallowfield United Methodist and so she could see her grandma and grandpa every day if she wanted to.

I’m sensitive and I typically take everything seriously. If my kids had only my perspective on life they would be much more sober than they are. Their dad makes life more fun.

On our last vacation we stayed two nights in a hotel. I’m the worst traveling companion I know. I get motion sick within a half hour. I need to eat every two hours and I need to stop at every rest area. By the time we reached our hotel after seven hours of driving, I wanted nothing but pajamas and a warm bed.

My husband, on the other hand, saw reaching our hotel as an opportunity to let the kids blow off steam. He took them to the hotel pool and let them bounce between the hot tub and the cold pool. They swam and basked in the hot tub for around an hour.

He did all the driving during our trip. So after seven hours on the road dealing with a cranky, motion-sick wife and two restless kids, he took them to the pool for an hour as a gift.

My own dad is a hard working man, too. When I was a kid he worked at Steel Car. When the economy tanked in the early 80s he started a furniture reupholstery business. He and Mom worked 18-to-20 hour days to keep food on the table. When Trinity Industries bought Steel Car he went back to work.

But Dad’s idea of working certainly didn’t stop at 5 p.m. on Friday.

He was always mowing and weed whacking. He swept the garage floor until it looked like new concrete. If something broke around the house, he fixed it. The only exceptions were electricity and plumbing. He knew his limits. But he’s a great carpenter and mechanic.

My dad was the head of the household, just as it says in the Bible. We didn’t argue with Dad. It was a rule. We did as we were told, or else. As a kid and young teenager, I assumed this was the way it worked in all families.

I discovered there were dads who treated their kids as friends. They didn’t fear their dad’s reaction to their mistakes. They didn’t mind pushing their boundaries, and it got them into trouble.

I knew I’d be in big trouble if I pushed my boundaries, so I didn’t.

My husband is the head of my household. My kids know Daddy is fun, but they also know they don’t want to make Daddy mad.

It takes a lot to make him angry, and he’s a fair disciplinarian even when he’s mad. But they know when Daddy lays down the law, no amount of crying or begging will keep them from receiving their punishment. Now we’re not talking about a trip to the woodshed. But he knows how to get the kids to do what I can’t get them to do.

I said all that to say this. My husband and father deserve honor on Father’s Day. I hope you will honor the dads in your life this week.

All God’s blessings!