Fathering Our Faith || 06.18.2022

Happy Father’s Day to all men watching this live and online. I want to give the same honor to the men that I gave to the women on Mother’s Day.

Many of you may not have seen my dad. So you’ll have to picture him as a 62-year-old version of me. I mean, we even share the same-ish name. Thanks for that, but I digress—either way, my dad has to be THE most dedicated working man I have seen in my life. Day in and day out, he spends many waking days making sure that we get the care we need. My dad is also a third shifter, and you don’t see many 62-year-olds working that shift, so he’s sleeping a lot of the waking day. It’s something that I feel gets overlooked a lot because some people may look at it as if he’s not around a lot due to his schedule. Yeah, there are some days when I may not see him because our schedules don’t align, but I remember he’s doing what he needs to take care of himself and us. He puts himself out there, sometimes too much (which seemed to be genetic.), to show his love and care for my mom, sister, and myself. That type of love resembles the same love that God gives to each one of us. To know that God gave Abram’s descendants the promised land, my dad gave me a promising future. To know that God’s blessing shines around me, my dad’s love, teachings, values, and principles shine around me.

That’s not all too. I am many blessings with the many spiritual fathers/mentors/guides here at the church. Like Mother’s Day, I’m not going to name names because I don’t want to pick favorites, but there are men here at the church that have taught me a lot about myself, encouraged me when I needed it, made me laugh when I needed it, gave me advice when I needed it, and so much more that I could name. One of the men came up to me recently, sharing praise for the work I was doing and how he was of me, and I’m not going to lie. I may or may not have teared up a little afterward. Like all women here, you men have taken in this 26-year-old boy and helped mature him into who he is today. So thank you!

Between my dad, my church dads, and my almighty dad, I think my life is full of enough guidance, love, mercy, and support to get me to the Promised Land. Thank you, Dad! I love you! Thank you, church dads! I love you all as well. God bless!