Happy Father’s Day, Dad!
Other than our Lord, if there was one person I wanted to please in this life, it was my Dad.
On this Father’s Day I would like to list some positive qualities of a good father. I cannot get away from using the best examples I know personally. So please forgive me, if the column this week seems a bit boastful and dedicated to the two best fathers I know, but please keep in mind that my frame of reference is limited.
I loved my Dad, Dr. Julian Pope because he was honest. He did not teach me to tell the truth and live a lie. Dad was not perfect, but I never knew him once in 75 years to bear false witness against anyone or make an attempt to “cover-up” truth.
Dad loved my Mother. He was her “knight in shining armor.” He prayed her back to health when the doctors gave up on her. I never knew my Dad to criticize my mom to anyone. He truly loved her as Christ loved the church. I never saw or knew of a time he was inappropriate in his behavior around a member of the opposite sex.
Dad was obedient to God’s will in his life. There were several occasions growing up when he could have made a decision that would have increased his popularity and wealth, yet on more than one occasion he chose obscurity with a humble Christ-like attitude. He taught me through this that obeying God’s will for our life is priority!
I love my father-in-law, Mr. Paul Wright. The first reason I love him is because he makes everybody feel like somebody. When Barbara Pope was a little girl he would sit for hours while she was practicing piano and then compliment her when she was finished. While most fathers would have been tempted to put cotton in their ears, he was busy making the future pianist at Christchurch Baptist Fellowship, a very timid little girl, believe in herself.
My father-in-law sees the values of little things. He find the lost discarded tool by the side of the road or makes cooking utensils out of scrap metal. Even children feel comfortable with him because when they are talking about the little things in their little childish world he doesn’t have to pretend he’s interested—he really is! Paul Wright also has the ability to see the life that others would discard and convince them, through loving action, that God is not finished with them.
Paul Wright taught his family that the preacher was God’s man. Not once while Barbara was growing up did she ever hear her Dad speak an unkind word about the preacher. Perhaps that is one reason early in her life she set a goal to marry one. (Thank God!)
“Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding” (Proverbs 4:1).
- Pastor Pope -