HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

“Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.

Children born to a young man are like sharp arrows in a warrior’s hand.”
Psalm 127: 3 & 4

A HAPPY FATHER’S DAY to all you fathers out there. I wish for you a blessed and fulfilling day.

Wow, I totally did not plan this, I have been focusing on men and infertility for my past two posts and now it is father's day. How coincidental.

The past two father’s days, my husband was on cloud nine. Our son was born the day before father’s day 2007 and he walked on father’s day last year. I do not know what special he has in store for his father this father’s day. This little boy is a daddy’s boy and has been since. He is now saying daddy and it seem he likes the sound of the word, he just calls it and calls it for no reason. He only needs me when he is hungry or when he wants to cuddle to go to sleep. He is not far off though because mothers are known to be the cuddlers and the caregivers.

My focus this father’s day will be on the men around us who are not biological fathers but who have been performing fatherly functions to our children. Before my husband became a father, he was involved in one of our local schools mentorship program and he was assigned a student who was deemed a problem child. My husband worked with that young man in such a way that at the end of the program he was so well-adjusted. He had secured a job straight out of high school and was living on his own and making his own life decisions. This truly was a success. Sadly these men are not recognized on father’s day because they do not fit the most important part of the meaning of the word father. They have no biological children.

This is why I want to honor these men this father’s day. There are also the godfathers, the uncles who have to step in at times to be father figures to their neice and nephews. The step-fathers who are handed this ready-made role and sometimes all the acknowledgement they receive is a mother saying do not talk to my child like that, you are not his/her father, or a child saying do not hit me you are not my father. Then there are the teachers who from time to time take on the role of father in some of their students’ lives. The adopted and foster fathers and last but not least, the mothers who have to perform the role of fathers to their children from time to time because of the absence of a father for whatever reason. You get the picture, I do not want to leave out anyone who is deserving of this honour, this father's day. A HAPPY FATHERS DAY to you. You are truly impacting our world and without you we would have less well-adjusted children around us.

For those men who continue the struggle to become fathers, I could not complete this post without encouraging you to fight on because when men on earth have done their best, angels in heaven cannot do more.

In the meantime, I encourage you to find something to do this father’s day to make the day fulfilling for you. Spend some time with a fatherless child, or volunteer at a home for aged men. Spend some quality time with your father if he is still around and you will find that the day will not be as difficult to deal with. Most of all, you will feel so good inside.

Until next time, keep clinging to hope.