Honoring My Father on Father’s Day

Just recently, I spent some time ruminating on just how blessed I have been! In meditating on how God has directed my life, I thought about what would have happened to me had my father not listened to God over 50 years ago! Then I thought about a man named Gideon in the Bible.

Gideon did not come from a Godly family so he had to make choices for himself that would keep him from following in the same pattern and manner of life that his father had lived. The Bible says he was “a mighty man of valour”, Judges 6:12. He became that kind of young man even when his father before him had not led him by example, in the path of courage and character.

Gideon desired to please God, and in obedience, he tore down the idols that his own father had built! Judges 6:25-28 Gideon did not procrastinate in doing what was right...he did it right away!

He had to pull down the strongholds that had been built and rebuild again. In Judges 6: 26, God told Gideon to build up an altar to God, with the wood FROM the strongholds that were torn down and to replace them with something to give to the Lord! Using the SAME wood he already had available, he built anew...for the glory of God! When Gideon did this, he immediately experienced the wrath of friends and family. But God used and blessed Gideon in a way that seemed impossible, in order to defeat the Midianites.


Once again I thought of my father. He has always been a mighty man of valour to me. He was a newly married man with an empty heart, on a search for truth and God, when he got saved. Immediately, he took up a cross to follow the Lord. The Light that had come into his dark soul, led the way out of his weary wilderness and he willingly followed...even when no one seemed to understand.

He did not want to follow the pattern and course that had been set for him by his father, who was a lost man. My Dad did what few men in this present day attempt to do. He forsook all.... religion, the family and the farm, and followed Christ. He was determined to raise his family in a separated, spiritual pattern, apart from the world. His family turned on him and for most of my growing up years, they were angry and bitter at my parents. All but his sister, died lost. My dad prayed for his sister’s salvation for over 50 years. My God heard that fervent prayer...


It took great courage and character for my Dad to keep right on standing for Christ and His scriptural New Testament church, when family and friends thought he was nothing but a fool.

Here we are over 50 years later---- By the grace and mercy of God, I am still in church and serving the Lord with my life. I have siblings who have done the same. We have decided to follow the spiritual example that was lived before us. When faced with their own decision to embrace the world, the flesh and the devil, my own children chose salvation through repentance and faith and are all saved and living separated, clean lives of service to God . They are a blessing in the churches they are a member of.

Where would we all be now, had my father not torn down the idols and strongholds built by his father, in his life? How different all our lives would be!


What one man started...can be lost in one generation, if we do not take heed to ourselves and do the same thing that Gideon did! Just because my father tore down the strongholds and idols built by his father before him, does not mean I am automatically saved.

I had to make the same decision that my father made!

Strongholds can take over in a moment of time and our refusal to call them what they are and destroy them immediately, WILL affect the next generation.


On this Father’s Day, I cannot thank my father enough for being a mighty man of valour in my life. With his imperfect humanity, I cannot thank him enough for living an obvious life of dedication and service to the Lord! How blessed I am to have the memory of a living, unwavering example of a “Gideon” father! I thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Happy Father’s Day Daddy! I love you.

Sheryl