Anybody Can Be a Father, But Dads are Who we Celebrate

Father’s Day…a great reminder of the men in our life that guide us to something greater.  This is the guy in the house that is into fishing, maybe hunting, maybe he’s a computer geek or something else.  Fathers come in all shapes and sizes and in my case, have been all shapes and sizes.

While the day is called Father’s Day, it should really be called Dad’s day, because as it happens, that is the kind of guy we are talking about.  You can father children with the best of them.  I read a story the other day about a guy that fathered 20 different kids.  There are even those in the NFL that have done that.  But it takes something different, something special to be a dad.  A dad is someone that teaches us about the rough and tumble.  A dad gives you skills that help you in the world from how to wash a car or change the oil to how to deal with a bad day at work.  A dad is someone that loves you anyway even though you’ve done the most idiotic thing you can imagine.  He may not like it, but he loves you no matter what.

Over the years, there has been an emphasis on how fathers weren’t really all that important, but I beg to differ.  Without my dad, I would not have gotten an education on classic cars or how to play poker and be decent at it.  My dad may not have been the guy that taught me how to throw a ball, but he taught me how to treat people and give them their due.  His business sense over the years has been something that has guided me as I have taken my place in the business world.  Indeed, in his final years he saw me do so many things that he could be proud of.  Yeah, I had some skills I learned over the years, but he had a hand in it.  It’s been around a year since he went home to be with his Lord, but his lessons are not easily forgotten.

I can only hope my kids look to me as a guy that they can call a dad.  Anybody with the proper genetic material can be a father.  But what it takes to be a dad…that’s special.  It’s something to strive for.