submitted by Robin Wiley
Already the middle of the month of June and it feels like nearly half this year has gone by so quickly. I guess it really does go by in a flash after you turn fifty-five (LOL!!). Cherish each moment is my new motto as well as being kind with gratitude. So it with gratitude I greet all the men out there who are fathers to their clans. Whatever your role in people’s lives you play, may it be filled with sweet blessings.
As I had written a while back – I am planning on sharing one of my step-dad’s (Del) poems with you that he wrote for fathers. It’s a little long winded (sorry Dad:) and you might be able to tell he was a preacher on the side of life. He would preach at trailer parks he and Mom would visit and also at a few churches in Mexico. Everyone’s salvation was very important to him, and he knew the “harvest was great but the workers [were] few.”
I may have mentioned this before, but my dad was a self-taught man. He dropped out of school in the 6th grade. His story of that time was he had a very old teacher who told him he was stupid and would never amount to much. So he quit. It was during the period that lead up to the Great Depression, so he just worked instead, but vowed to learn everything he could to prove he was smart. In my opinion, he amounted to a great deal in this life. He taught my sisters and I so much about life, common sense, hard work, and how to continuous learn. For those things – I will be eternally grateful to Del, my dad.
Here’s wishing all you men who are father’s or have some sort of fatherly influence – a kind-filled with moments-of-joy day!
“Dads Day” by Del Korf
This is the day that’s been set aside
It’s on the calendar, it’s bonafide.
This is the day we’re to honor our dad
Keep this in mind, whether daughter or lad
that dad is there to help us do right,
and to run life’s race with all our might.
Dad helps us unravel the ‘knots’ of life
He’s also there to sooth our strife.
Dads are also the daily “bread winners,”
If Christians, they know we all are sinners,
and bring sinners, he knows we must be forgiven,
By Jesus who bled as His side was riven.
So that all who believe and accept God’s son
Will then at long last, have the victory won!
A Christian dad knows it’s the fear of the Lord
that will bring to us knowledge, it’s in His Word!
Now dads can’t be with us throughout our life
And as we grow and experience sorrow and strife.
Sorrows and strife are there for a reason
To ready us for eternity, not just a ‘season.’
If Christians, we’ll experience joy and peace
While doing His will and the knowledge release
That Jesus arose and receives to Himself
All who seek Him, not power and pelf.
A Christian dad says, “Take Jesus as Savior and live your life at your best behavior.”
Dad, if you’re not a Christian, here’s what you need,
Turn your life over to Christ and His message heed
So that when at last, you hear His final call
You can live with Him and avoid that big fall
Into perdition, with those who reject the Lord
By sidestepping the facts of His living Word.
Dad, won’t you accept Jesus, the One who paid
The extreme debt that He never owed
Thus He’d release you from sins heavy load.
You owe a debt you can never pay,
But Jesus will take all your sins away
If you will but take this Son of God
And discipline your life with an iron rod.
You would then be known as a worthy dad
Not plagued in your mind, “I wish I had
Taken this Savior as my very own
Now I know, only Jesus can my sins atone”!!
If dads will take Jesus, and trust Him “to the hilt”
He will forgive all your sins and forget all your guilt.
Dads, please accept Jesus, then you will know
The sins you’ve committed, are now white as snow!