Pray that all fathers in the U.S. will resolve to show compassion to their children and upon their families. May God turn the hearts of fathers in America to their children. This article talks about how Father’s Day started and highlights 4 important roles of fathers that are still crucial today yet increasingly more uncommon in America. Strengthening fathers would strengthen our whole nation.

“As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;” (Ps 103:13)

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The year their only son was born saw John and Sonora Dodd attending the Mother’s Day service at their church in Spokane, Washington, USA. . . . [T]his was a celebration that was only just coming into vogue, due to the efforts of Anna Jarvis.

The popularity of the Father’s Day celebration was very slow compared to the growth of the Mother’s Day celebration.

As Sonora listened to the sermon in 1909, and heard from the Scriptures the virtues of mothers and motherhood, her mind went back over her childhood. And she pondered about the notion of there being a Father’s Day, too.

She remembered how her father William, a Civil War veteran, lost his wife as she gave birth to a sixth child. Sonora was only 16 at the time, the eldest and the only girl, and much of the role of raising her five brothers fell on her shoulders….

The US Congress passed it as a public holiday in 1970 and President Nixon signed it into law in 1972.

Her Father’s Day concept was further advanced by a front page item of the Spokane Chronicle, June 6, 1910. Part of the article sets out the aims and goals of such a celebration:

    “A Fathers’ Day would call attention to such constructive teachings from the pulpit as would naturally point out;

The father’s place in the home.

    The training of children.

    The safeguarding of the marriage tie.

    The protection of womanhood and childhood.

    The meaning of this, whether in the light of religion or of patriotism, is so apparent as to need no argument in behalf of such a day.”…

It took about 15 years for Father’s Day to have some sort of national representation. And it was not until 1966 that Lyndon Johnson, the then President of the United States, proclaimed the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. The US Congress passed it as a public holiday in 1970 and President Nixon signed it into law in 1972….

Nations celebrate Father’s Day at different times and dates. Several do so on June 14, regardless of the day of the week on which it falls. Some 72 countries celebrate it on the third Sunday in June, and this includes the USA, the United Kingdom, South Africa, China and India and many more….

May this biblical and divine instruction be an ever-present reality in our lives. (Excerpts from the Graham McDonald article in Creation.com)