Especially for Father's Day, here is a short list of things that I believe to be true for dads:

That the best way to love our children is to love and respect their mother,

That the best gift we can give our children is a sense of safety and security as they grow up.

I believe that it's more important to give them our time, not our money, it's more important to be respected by them than to be liked by them, it's more important to encourage them in their interests than to require them to share our interests. That means, dads, that if you were a fullback but your son loves the violin, you better learn to love the violin!

And I believe that our responsibility reaches beyond caring for our own children, and Jesus expects us to care for all children, everywhere.

It was Dietrich Bonhoeffer who said "The true test of a society is how it cares for its children." Taken to its logical extension, it means that we cannot just be proud that OUR kids received a great education when other children receive a poor education. We cannot be satisfied that our children get fully nutritious meals when some children go to be hungry at night. We can be proud that our child has a spacious bedroom, but shouldn't we also be concerned that 4400 children are homeless in our state alone?