Happy Father's Day!

Pastor Mark A. Callister

          June holds a new barbecue grill for me.  The grill I have been using for several years now has been rebuilt at least twice.  As burners, heat shields and drip pans have dissolved in the corrosive drippings of burgers and ribeye steaks I have tried to maintain good working order in my favorite appliance.  I checked last week on the cost of replacement parts and the older my grill gets, the more costly it becomes to repair.  So, June is “new grill month” at the Callister house.  Charlotte doesn’t really mind because any meal that I cook on the grill becomes one meal she doesn’t have to cook herself. I don’t really mind because June is the month that holds Father’s Day and I am in fact, a father.

          The process of becoming a father is really quite pleasant and most men are more than willing to make that journey.  The responsibility of becoming a father is an entirely different landscape and it takes courage and strength to walk that road.  To make a child is easy, to raise a child takes years and years of hard work and sacrifice. 

I spoke at my parents 40th wedding anniversary and knowing that my father raised 7 children I said, “My father has pictures in his wallet…right where his money used to be.”  The same could be said of me or any other man who paid for art lessons, or dance lessons, or swimming lessons, or music lessons, or bought 4-H livestock, or set aside a college fund, or said, “I don’t need anything for Christmas, just make sure the children are happy.”

I wish that every dad who was willing to “make” a child was also willing to raise that child.  Pain is the result of every one of those situations where dad falls short.  But praise God for the men who step up and put themselves in the backseat so their families can thrive.

Men, I understand that I have only done you a half-service in this article.  I know that you may get a new grill out of this but I also know that it could possibly be your own money that buys you that grill.  Oh well, it’s what you signed up for and if you have been faithful – you deserve it.