I had a great Father's Day--my first official. It was comforting to realize that even though I now have a child of my own, and therefore don't have to feel silly for standing in church to receive the Father's Day treat, nothing else is different. I don't mean at home. Lots was different at home. Kristen made me breakfast in bed, took care of the baby, gave me presents and a card and just generally made it feel like a special day. That was wonderful. The part that doesn't change happens outside the house.
It is a well-known fact to members of the church that on Mother's Day there are sentimental talks about the sacredness of motherhood and personal stories of the speaker's own mom. The primary children will file up to the front and serenade their moms with an emotional rendition of Mother, I Love You. All women who are 18 years or older will then receive some kind of thoughtful gift; a flower, book or treat of some description.
It is also well known that on Father's Day, the congregation can expect a service devoted to Fatherhood. It usually takes a different tone however. This year did not disappoint.
The main message of the meeting was that the men in the chapel ought to straighten up and fly right. No kudos for a job well done. No heartwarming stories about dads-gone-by. Just an implicit reprimand, backed up by scripture. I admit that the speaker got misty when speaking of her own father. She choked back a lump in her throat as she told us that her dad never said 'I love you' and never went to a single one of her basketball games. Aww, so sweet.
At long last her talk was over and the children were ushered forward to sing. At least the kids will convey a loving message about their dad's who are sitting within spitting distance, right? Wrong. Instead they sang I Am a Child of God. So, on Father's Day they sang a song about how they have a better dad in Heaven...great. It may have been better to just be spit on.
There was redeeming value in the meeting though. We got cookies.
3 comments:
laughing so hard right now! oh dang, i thought these things but just not from a dad's perspective.
Speaker#1: the not coming to her games was weird no doubt!
Speaker #2: HELLO!! We went OVER last week, must you OB us again???
but all i got out of it was dads have skinny legs and moms have big ol fat ones to provide laps. grrrreat!
Honey, you're hilarious. It's so true, what can I say...the men just get trashed on. Hey, but at least the second speaker had at about ten funny jokes to start out his talk with. Yeah, and we can be mad together since I didn't like how the female angel in the poem was depicted as an idiot. C'mon, who reads a poem by Erma Bombeck in Church? She's an old-school Martha Stewart and used to write books on keeping your house super clean. [Useless trivia=thanks to growing up with Marcie Alley]
Ha ha! Our church speakers actually did a great job of honoring fathers and giving them tons of credit. There was no song, however, and no treats. Isn't that the only reason a man goes to church on Father's Day?
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