Father’s Day may conjure up many emotional memories about our fathers. Some of them may be positive and some may be negative. Fathers can do that, while when we think of Mothers our emotions are mostly positive. When we think of father’s we think of them as the hard disciplinarian of the family. When we think of our mothers, she is the one we ran to when daddy got through with us! Yet there are loving memories of our father. Let us consider some memories that cause these loving thoughts. As we think of our fathers this day let us remember our fathers as a teacher. Look at what he taught us.
He may have taught us how to tie our shoes. Think of all the different kinds of shoes that have been on your feet and if the laces were not tied correctly serious accidents could happen. He taught us how to tie our work shoes both for working outside in the lawn or garden, but also working for someone else. He taught us how to tie our cleats, our tennis shoes or our basketball shoes. And as we were putting on these shoes he taught us about fair play and sportsmanship. He taught us how to tie a tie. What it means to get dressed up and how to act around others. He taught us about manners. Daddy sometime taught about tying ropes and the importance of the different knots in doing different jobs. Just think of how much our fathers have taught us and the importance of the little things.
He taught us about sports. He taught us how to take care of our equipment. What it meant if we left them out in the rain. He taught us how to oil the glove to make it soft and useable. He taught us how to hold the bat, throw the ball and catch the ball. He also taught us the proper way to field a ball. “Two hands are better than one,” he would shout to us. He taught us how to shoot a basketball. That game has changed so much since the time that he played; a jump ball after every made shot! The two handed set shot. He taught us how to dribble the basketball without palming or carrying the ball. Oh, that those lessons were taught today and the referees would stick to the rules of the game. Dad and Granddad would take us to the game and we would get to stay till the last out! (Way past our bed time, oh what fun). We even got to shout at the umpires but he taught us to respect them at the same time.
He taught us about automobiles. He taught us how to check things under the hood like the oil, the battery, and the belts. He taught us how to check the water in the radiator and when not to open it up. He taught us how to change a tire, how to grease all the zerk fittings and how and where to look for them. He also taught us about the breaks, what it means when they were squeaking. He taught us how to jump another car off when the battery was dead. Oh how thankful we are that dad took the time to teach all of these little things.
He taught us how to take care of the lawn. Dad would teach the importance of checking the oil in the lawn mower. He taught us the proper way to cut the grass i.e. the proper direction. He taught us about the weeds in the lawn and the grasses. He taught us how to overseed the lawn and how to work the fertilizer spreader. He taught us about the different kinds of fertilizer. Dad taught us how to use the line trimmer and the edger. He let us do those things and use that equipment and if it was not done correctly, we had to do it over until it was done the way he wanted it done. Yes, it might have been easier for him to do it all but he was a teacher. He knew that someday we would have a lawn of our own and that we would need to know all of these things to make our lawn look good. How thankful we are that dad taught us all of these things.
He taught us how to garden. He taught us how to space the rows out and what to plant in each row. Mother and dad may have talked about those things before we got to work but he taught us once we were working in the garden. He taught us to put the fertilizer down first and to cover it up. “It would burn the seeds” he would scold us. He taught us how to cover the seeds up and why that was so important. He then would teach us how to hoe the garden. Some of us took longer to learn this aspect of gardening than others! We were to know the difference between a weed and the seedling also. He seemed to know when we dug the wrong plant. Oh, he taught us so much, and how much we did not learn that we should have learned from him.
Most importantly he taught us about God; how that God is our Father. He taught us how to pray. He taught us how to bow our heads and fold our hands. He may have taught us how to hold hands pointing out how that shows unity within the family. He may have taught us how to kneel while we are praying and that when we did kneel we must speak louder so all could hear us. He taught us how to lead singing. While he may not have taught us that much about music, he did teach us how to beat the time signature with our hands. He taught us how to preach or teach. He may not have taught us all the finer points of teaching or preaching, but he taught us by example. He taught personal Bible studies and took the whole family with him. He read the Bible with those with whom he studied. He taught in the Bible school program. He taught the teenage class and the adult Bible classes. He taught us by example. We also saw, because he held these offices within the church, and thus taught us about deacons and elders. We saw the responsibilities of these offices and that it was a responsibility to be taken seriously. The job was to be done to the best of our ability because there was accountability.
“Honor thy father and thy mother” Ephesians 6:2.
Love, Keith
