Father's Day, 2011

He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.  Malachi 4:6 NASB

Though "Father's Day" is not a "Christian celebration" as such, the principle of honoring our parents is indeed well covered in the Scriptures.  If for whatever reason you are a father that has become estranged from his children, or if perhaps you are estranged from your own father, please consider doing whatever it takes to restore that relationship.  Life passes far too quickly to allow important family connections to fall by the wayside until the point that "reconnection" in the relationship is no longer possible.  Important things left unsaid, differences not discussed and then resolved or burnt bridges still not rebuilt within the family structure have a way of affecting future generations for years to come.  This Father's Day, why not take the steps needed to make right that which has caused a separation within your family...do what it takes to renew that link that is stressed or even broken by past differences.  Do it while you still can!  Our Creator will be pleased and your heart will be mended, so make that phone call, send that E-mail, open that door to reconciliation within your family...you can be the one that takes the first step.  May God richly bless you and yours in your efforts to be that instrument of healing!

"Father's Day is a celebration of fathers inaugurated in the early twentieth century to complement Mother's Day in celebrating fatherhood and male parenting. Father's Day is celebrated on a variety of dates worldwide and typically involves gift-giving, special dinners to fathers, and family-oriented activities.
The first observance of Father's Day actually took place in Fairmont, West Virginia on July 5, 1908. It was organized by Mrs. Grace Golden Clayton, who wanted to celebrate the lives of the 210 fathers who had been lost in the Monongah Mining disaster several months earlier in Monongah, West Virginia, on December 6, 1907. It's possible that Clayton was influenced by the first celebration of Mother's Day that same year, just a few miles away. Clayton chose the Sunday nearest to the birthday of her recently deceased father.
Unfortunately, the day was overshadowed by other events in the city, West Virginia did not officially register the holiday, and it was not celebrated again. All the credit for Father's Day went to Sonora Dodd from Spokane, who invented independently her own celebration of Father's Day just two years later, also influenced by Jarvis' Mother's Day.
Clayton's celebration was forgotten until 1972, when one of the attendants to the celebration saw Nixon's proclamation of Father's Day, and worked to recover its legacy. The celebration is now held every year in the Central United Methodist Church – the Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was torn down in 1922. Fairmont is now promoted as the "Home of the First Father's Day Service".
A bill to accord national recognition of the holiday was introduced in Congress in 1913.  In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson went to Spokane to speak in a Father's Day celebration and wanted to make it official, but Congress resisted, fearing that it would become commercialized.  US President Calvin Coolidge recommended in 1924 that the day be observed by the nation, but stopped short of issuing a national proclamation. Two earlier attempts to formally recognize the holiday had been defeated by Congress.  In 1957, Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith wrote a proposal accusing Congress of ignoring fathers for 40 years while honoring mothers, thus "[singling] out just one of our two parents" In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father's Day. Six years later, the day was made a permanent national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972.
In addition to Father's Day, International Men's Day is celebrated in many countries on November 19 for men and boys who are not fathers."

Source: Wikipedia