For Our Fathers....

[Liz]

HAPPY FATHERS DAY

Walk A Little Slower Daddy

Walk a Little slower, Daddy." said a little child so small.

I'm following in your footsteps and I don't want to fall.

Sometimes your steps are very fast, sometimes they're hard to see;

So walk a little slower Daddy, for you are leading me.

Someday when I'm all grown up, You're what I want to be.

Then I will have a little child who'll want to follow me.

And I would want to lead just right, and know that I was true;

So, walk a little slower, Daddy, for I must follow you!!

- Author Unknown

[darlene]

This weekend is a Very Special weekend because Sunday June 15, 2008 is Father’s Day. A day when we honour fathers and all men here in our church. The celebration of Father’s Day began many years ago in 1909 when a Mrs. Dodd proposed the idea of special day honour her father, William Smart. William Smart was a Civil War veteran, who was widowed when his wife died in childbirth with their sixth child. Mr. Smart was left to raise the newborn and his other five children by himself on a rural farm in eastern Washington state. It was after Mrs. Dodd became an adult that she realized the strength and selflessness her father had shown in raising his children as a single parent.

The first Father’s Day was observed on June 19, 1910 in Spokane Washington. At about the same time in various towns and cities across America other people were beginning to celebrate a “father’s day.” In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge supported the idea of a national Father’s Day. Finally in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father’s Day.

In the Review and Herald January 29, 1895 Ellen White makes this statement:

Christians take a heart-felt interest in the children that are about them, who, through subtle temptations of the enemy are ready to perish. Fathers, mothers if you have guarded your own children from the wiles of the foe, look about you to save the souls of the children who have not such care…There are youth all around us to whom the members of the church owe a duty; for Christ has died for them…They are precious in the sight of God, and He desires their eternal happiness…Christ calls for voluntary cooperation on the part of His agents in doing earnest, consistent work for the salvation of souls.”

So....Happy Father's Day, all you fathers! And if your children are already grown there is still a work to do because many children do not have a father figure today and you as fathers and grandfathers are still needed! So, Happy Fathering!