Gifts From My Father: A Reflection for Father’s Day
by Rob Genin
Father’s Day is this weekend. It does not get quite the press of Mother’s Day, and it can sneak up on you or even slip by unnoticed some years. Yet the influence of a father is incalculable. My own father has reached his 85th year, and it makes me want to reflect on the gifts he has given me. Here are four:
Work Ethic
My dad was frequently up at 3:30 to 4 AM, getting ready for the day and going to work early. He was disciplined about bedtimes and rising times. Without ever saying a word about it, he built into me the importance of a man being dependable and consistent.
Rest
Though he worked hard throughout the year, my family would take our Starcraft pop-up camper out for two weeks every summer in Washington State – Mt. Rainer National Park, Lake Sylvia, Larrabee. I remember hiking through breath-taking beauty and quiet times by the fire at night. We played Yahtzee at the picnic table. My family celebrated and rested well.
Presence
Even when things were hard and conversations difficult, my dad and I could always play catch together. Invisible and important things are transmitted through the quiet times fathers and sons (and men) spend together shoulder to shoulder.
Endurance and Faith
We were a nominal Catholic family growing up. My parents divorced when I was nine, and there was a lot of pain for my parents, and for me and my three siblings. Yet God sought us out in that pain, and we all committed our lives to Jesus over the years that followed. My dad, nearly 20 years after, truly began to walk with Jesus. He taught me it is not too late to grow or learn the most important lessons in your life.
When I reflect on these four lessons, they are all aspects of the truth which I have learned from my Heavenly Father as well:
Work Ethic
As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work (John 9:4).
Rest
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
Presence
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” (Hebrews 13:5-6)
Endurance and Faith
For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever” (1 Peter 1:24-25).
I am so thankful for the lessons I have learned. I pray that I too will be a vessel to transmit God’s truth to my sons and to others in my care. Happy Father’s Day, dad. To both of you.