June is an exciting month of festivities. People will be attending graduations, weddings and, of course, celebrating Father’s Day.

Father’s Day originated with Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Wash. She had listened to a Mother’s Day sermon at her church, and because she and her siblings had been raised by their father after their mother died in childbirth, she felt that a day also should be set aside to honor fathers. She initiated the first unofficial Father’s Day celebration in Spokane on June 19, 1910.

Although Mother’s Day was widely embraced and nationally recognized in 1914, initial attempts to establish a national Father’s Day were met with resistance. In fact, it wasn’t until 1972 that President Nixon established a permanent national observance for Father’s Day to be held on the third Sunday of June.

Why do you suppose it took so long to establish an official Father’s Day?

Perhaps the answer has something to do with the fact that when we think about mother, we think about gentleness, nurturing, kindness and unconditional love. When we think about father, our thoughts lean more toward an authority figure, breadwinner, disciplinarian and ruling head of the family. After all, who among us can forget the dread of hearing, “Just wait until your father gets home.”

If father wielded his authority with love and kindness, his children developed respect and admiration for him. If, however, father was harsh and demanding, his children grew up without knowing the comfort and strength gained from a father’s unconditional love. As a result, they would not have developed the affectionate relationship they may have yearned for.

Perhaps this is one reason people initially had a difficult time establishing an official Father’s Day. Maybe they found it difficult to put father in the same affectionate category as mother.

One of the consequences of growing up in a home where father is harsh and lacks unconditional love is that the children can grow up not knowing what to think about their Heavenly Father. It is possible for Christians to live their entire lives without ever developing a relationship with Him.

Jesus tells us in John 16:37, “For the Father Himself tenderly loves you because you have loved Me and have believed that I came out from the Father.”

Because you love Jesus, your Heavenly Father doesn’t just love you, He tenderly loves you. This is not a picture of a God who is harsh and demanding. He loves you with a gentle love.

You may wonder what your Heavenly Father’s reaction will be if you reach out to Him and then miss the mark and sin. If you have trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior and have asked Him to forgive you of your sins, His blood has removed your sins so far away that even your Heavenly Father doesn’t see them. That is the power of the cross.

Psalm 103:12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

When you confess your sins, all your Heavenly Father sees when He looks at you is the beauty of Jesus in your life. You can come to your Heavenly Father as a little child, with all of your anxieties, all of your cares and all of your fears, and He will tenderly love and take care of you as only He can do.

If you have never known the gentle, unconditional love of a father, won’t you reach out to your Heavenly Father today?

(The following story has been making the e-mail rounds.)

“When I was a kid, my mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. And I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at work.

“On that evening so long ago, my mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely burned biscuits in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did was reach for his biscuit, smile at my mom and ask me how my day was at school. I don’t remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that biscuit and eat every bite!

“When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my mom apologize to my dad for burning the biscuits. And I’ll never forget what he said: ‘Honey, I love burned biscuits.’

“Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his biscuits burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, ‘Your Momma put in a hard day at work today and she’s really tired. And besides -- a little burnt biscuit never hurt anyone!’”

Isn’t it just exciting that her daddy chose to be content, even positive, rather than choose to make an issue of the burned biscuits? Very little is perfect in our earthly lives, and we have little control over most circumstances, but we do have total control over our response to situations. 

Have you managed to look at situations from the other side?

Do you have a child not functioning up to capacity in school? Put your focus on his or her ability to listen and respond to people of all ages.

Do you have a boss who does not have your sense of commitment? Make sure your timeliness, productivity and teamwork are improving.

Does your neighbor’s dog spend too much time in your yard? Watch how the disabled child interacts with the dog and rejoice with the child.

Accept others faults, choose to celebrate differences, find the good in every situation and find our God in every circumstance. You will feel the better for it, God will be pleased and your blood pressure will thank you. Don’t put the key to your happiness in someone else’s pocket; tuck it prayerfully in the pockets of your heart and mind.

The Biblical principle of sacrifice requires an exchange of one thing for another. Sometimes we want the payoff without the exchange. We want results without sacrifice. However, with sacrifice there must be an exchange of one thing for something of greater value.

I have been involved in many situations where addiction takes a home and its family hostage. The home becomes a playhouse for the enemy, who creates chaos, wounds the innocent and places a substance before family members, self and -- most importantly -- God.

Family members cry out for change but continue in destructive behavior. I hear words like “whatever it takes to help, I’ll do it.” However, when it comes to walking out the exchange and it becomes uncomfortable and difficult, the personal sacrifice is deemed too great and the enemy wins the battle.

The Accuser stands and whispers to those who want change, “This isn’t love.” “Who do you think you are?”

“You’ll never win this battle.”

“You don’t have the right to say no.”

1 Corinthians 10:24 says, “Do not seek your own good, but the good of the other person.” Confronting the addiction and setting boundaries is for the good of the other person. However, it may require time apart from the family member if they chose not to get help and continue in their sinful, destructive behavior.

Often in those situations, the person who confronts is hounded with accusations from the person who is addicted. The Accuser stands with them and hurls words to prevent the consequences of their choice to continue the sinful behavior. It’s not about rejecting the addicted person; it is about being willing to provide consequences to deal with the sinful behavior they have chosen while refusing assistance in laying down that sin.

Walking out the Biblical principle of sacrifice may include our families. Sometimes we must see God’s vision for the family instead of our own. God’s will must supersede our own comfort and will. Matthew 10:37 says, “Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.”

I was recently struck by a scene in “Glory,” a movie about the first African-American soldiers in the Civil War. In the dark, the war-worn soldiers gathered around a campfire. They were clapping, raising hands and singing, “Lord, Lord, Lord.” Several soldiers took turns standing and encouraging the others about the battle they faced in the morning. Many knew they would lose their lives.

One man stood and said, “Lord, if we die tomorrow, let our families know it was for their freedom that we died.”

I say as well, “Lord, if I die tomorrow, let them know everything I did and sacrificed was for the good of the other.”

You and I do not have eternal life because we exhibit unwavering faith. We are saved because at a moment in time we expressed faith in our enduring Lord, Jesus Christ, and what He accomplished for us on the cross. The apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:8-9: “By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” The salvation that has been given to us is His loving, sacrificial gift to us -- we can do nothing to earn it.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I have learned that a present that can be taken back is not really a gift at all. True gifts have no strings attached. Once we place a condition of any kind on a present, it becomes a trade — not a gift. To say that our salvation can be taken from us for any reason, whether it be sin or disbelief, is to ignore the plain meaning of what Paul teaches us in the verses above. Questioning the permanency of our salvation is equivalent to not believing Ephesians 2:8-9 or other passages where Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is clearly described as a gift.

What you do once you’re saved is another matter entirely. When you accept a present, it’s yours — like it or not. You can take it and bury it in the backyard, but it still belongs to you. You may say, “Well, what if I give it back?” You can only return a present if the giver accepts it back, and there is absolutely no evidence in Scripture that the Lord has ever taken back the gift of salvation once it has been given. His love keeps Him from doing so. Remember, Christ came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). Why would He take back what He came to provide?

We may wonder, “What about a wavering faith? If faith is our way of accepting God’s gift, can’t we lose our salvation if our trust in Him falters?” Though it is true that faith serves as our spiritual hands by which we receive the Lord’s gift, it is not necessarily a sustained attitude. We are reconciled to God the moment we accept what He has offered.

Has there been a time in your life when you accepted God’s free gift of salvation? If not, why not settle the issue -- once and for all -- right now? It’s really so simple. The Lord is not looking for a series of promises from you and is not concerned about what you can do for Him. Rather, He is more concerned about what you will let Him do for you. So have faith in what Christ has accomplished on the cross and accept His gift of eternal life. It is the one present you will never lose — it will truly be yours forever.

Copyright 2010 In Touch Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.intouch.org

For more information on the topic of eternal security, please read “Eternal Security: Can You Be Sure?” by Dr. Charles Stanley, or to participate in an online discussion about this book, please visit www.intouch.org/bookclub