A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave. (Luke 7:2-3 NRSV Bible)
In a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, Dad is sitting at a desk in the living room, trying to balance the checkbook. Calvin enters carrying a clipboard.

Calvin says, "Dad, your polls took a big dive this week. Your "Overall Dad Performance" rating was especially low. Calvin hands the clipboard to his Dad. See? Right about yesterday your popularity went down the tubes.

Dad protests, "CALVIN, YOU DIDN'T GET DESSERT YESTERDAY BECAUSE YOU FLOODED THE HOUSE!"

Calvin walks away as he replies, "I'd suggest a new line of work, "DAD"....

It's not easy being a parent. It is not easy to be a dad. That's why we set aside one day a year to honor those men who dearly love us. It is a love that has been given to them from our Father in heaven.

Good fathers will have a tender heart. The centurion, in our scripture reading today, had a servant who was quite dear to him. Luke says that the centurion had "a slave whom he valued highly." We can speculate that the servant was an older man who had been with the family for many years. Perhaps he had helped raise the centurion. But now this servant was critically ill and the centurion was quite upset. He was concerned about his servant and he wanted to do something for him. He cared. He had a tender heart.

I'm sure all of our dads today can remember stories with your kids were your kind and tender heart took over. I will probably never forget the time when Matt got a splinter under his finger nail. It was so deep I couldn't get it out. Matt wasn't in any pain, but the splinter did have to come out. So off to the doctor we went. The doctor tried his best to get a hold of the splinter, but the only way he could get it out was dig it out. So, I was then assigned along with a nurse to hold Matt down as the splinter was dug out. It was certainly a low point in my role as a parent. All I could do after such a horrible experience was hug on Matt and tell him how sorry I was. As you might well guess, Matt doesn't particularly like going to the doctor. A good and godly man will have a tender heart. What is the state of your heart?

Heavenly Father, give me lots of your love to share. Amen.

Ron Newhouse

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