QotD: Happy Father's Day
What is the most valuable lesson your father taught you? Bonus points if you show us your dad.
My father taught me many valuable lessons, too numerous to list here and all are too valuable to rank. These lessons are valuable in shaping the father I am today. Realizing that fatherhood is a full-time and lifelong job, I constantly think about what I say and how I present myself to the children. Everyday, I am setting an example of how a father operates in the world and I need to do my best to set a good example, based on how the fathers in my life have operated.
Father’s Day is also a good time to consider one of the simplest and most powerful prayer one can meditate on.
Matthew 6:7-15 (NAB)
In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one. If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.
Today is also the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. The Northern Hemisphere has reached its maximum tilt angle toward the sun, meaning the length and intensity of the sun’s light is at their peak today. As Jesus said in the passage below, we are all sources of light. Like the seasons, the intensity of our light varies and clouds occasionally obscure that light. However, we can take a lesson from the sun and be a consistent and quality supplier of light and energy for others (including ourselves).
Matthew 5:13-16 (NAB)
You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.
