This weekend coming up holds a special holiday.  It is definitely not as highly promoted as Mother’s Day – but that is a fault of the American public.  I hope by now you have bought cards, planned meals, and bought gifts as a way to show appreciation to the Father in your life.

As I was at Target the past few weeks, I’ve been highly disappointed in the types of Father’s Day cards out there to choose from.  The above display will show you a great majority of them and what their common theme is.

The aobve card should not be the sentiment of Father’s Day.  Fathers get a bad rap out there due to some of the population living up the cards and also the television shows that depict fathers as dead-beats, uninvolved, lazy bums.  This is not who God designed Fathers to be.

There are three overarching commands that Fathers (and husbands) need to be that God set up as a design:

1.  Protector.  I feel this greatly in my relationship with my husband and the father to our children.  I remember the way he drove us to the hospital before Elijah came along and the first ride on the way home from the hospital with eli.  He also is our protector here at home, protecting us not just from harm from the outside, but also harm from within (by what we watch, do, and listen to.

2.  Leader.  Men are commanded to lead in a Christ-honoring way.  This is a self-less leadership but one that knows that it his job to lead our family.  My husband/father to our children does this by choosing what we read, sometimes how we spend our time, and how he leads our family in financial matters.

3.  Provider.  My husband/father of our children is a great provider for our family.  He is a hard worker and has a strong work ethic.  I had that in my Father as well.  E not only provides for our family financially, but provides a strong Christian-spirit for our home.

Bodily noises and beer should not be the focus of our celebration of our fathers.  But, unfortunately for so many of us, that is where we are because that is the type of father we know or have.  If this is the case for you, I pray you would ask your perfect Heavenly Father to redeem the time that you have with your earthly father and ask Him to work a good work in your Father’s life and heart.