The History of Father's Day
Marvina Stedge
June 15, 2012
We
always celebrate father’s day, but did you ever wonder how it even got
started? Well as I was trying to figure out what to write…I was
researching fathers day and I found this: Well here's an article that
might help:
Sonora
Dodd, of Washington, first had the idea of a "father's day." She
thought of the idea for Father's Day while listening to a Mother's Day
sermon in 1909.
Sonora wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart. Smart,
who was a Civil War veteran, was widowed when his wife died while giving
birth to their sixth child. Mr. Smart was left to raise the newborn and
his other five children by himself on a rural farm in eastern
Washington state.
After Sonora became an adult she realized
the selflessness her father had shown in raising his children as a
single parent. It was her father that made all the parental sacrifices
and was, in the eyes of his daughter, a courageous, selfless, and loving
man. Sonora's father was born in June, so she chose to hold the first
Father's Day celebration in Spokane, Washington on the 19th of June,
1910.
President Calvin Coolidge, in 1924, supported the idea
of a national Father's Day. Then in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed
a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as
Father's Day.
Now I mean I can’t just go without including this verse: 1 Corinthians 4:14-17 says: “I
am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children.
Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many
fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my
son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my
way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere
in every church.
Sonora
realized that her father did what he could to help raise them, and she
wanted a day that recognized fathers for all the hard work they really
do. God wants that too. He doesn’t want to scold you; He doesn’t find
the joy in scolding you, He finds the joy in raising you up and helping
you become what He knows you can become. He wants to be your father,
when you feel like you don’t have a father. He wants to share your joys
with you, your problems, your excitements, everything. So let Him be
that father for you, especially when things with your own father are not
going so well.
