Friday, June 19, 2009

Fatherhood

The other day at our church rummage sale, I saw a book called “Fatherhood” by Bill Cosby. I have a copy of the book in my office and began skimming through it. I would like to share with you two observations that Cosby makes about fathers.

He writes: “Now that my father is a grandfather, he just can’t wait to give money to my kids. But when I was his kid and I asked him for fifty cents, he would tell me the story of his life; how he got up at 4 A.M. when he was seven years old and walked twenty-three miles to milk ninety cows. And the farmer for whom he worked had no bucket, so he had to squirt the milk into his little hand and then walk eight miles to the nearest can; all for 5 cents a month. The result was that I never got my 50 cents. But now he tells my children every time he comes into the house, “Well, let’s see how much money old Granddad has got for his wonderful kids." And the minute they take money out of his hands, I call them over to me and I snatch it away from them. Because that is MY money!”

The other story Cosby tells is the difference between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. He insists that “Mother’s Day is a much bigger deal because Mothers are more organized. Mothers say to their children, “Now here is a list of what I want. Go get the money from your father and you surprise me on Mother’s Day. You do that for me.” For Father’s Day I give each of my five kids $20, so that they can go out and by me a present--a total of $100. They go to the store and buy two packages of underwear, each of which costs $5 and contains three shorts. They tear them open and each kid wraps up one pair, the sixth pair of underwear going to the Salvation Army. Therefore, on Father’s Day I am walking around with new underwear and my kids are walking around with $90 worth of my change in their pockets.”

Stories of fatherhood make us laugh. But the fact is, the role of “fatherhood” has been cheapened and overlooked by society. Most fathers you see on sitcoms are dimwitted and easily outsmarted by their kids. In the last few years there has been a trend among celebrity women to adopt children when they are not married, and the children will have no father. As if fatherhood is optional.

Fatherhood is not optional. Fathers, your children need you! And children, you need your fathers. No, we may not buy the some amount of gifts for our fathers as we do our mothers, (Cosby also said, “Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap on-a-rope.”) but this does not cheapen their role. Consider words even wiser than Mr. Cosby’s: “Listen, my sons, to a father's instruction; pay attention and gain understanding. (Proverbs 4:1)”

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