Honoring Fatherhood: Lessons from the Prodigal Son Story

In the United States, we celebrate and honor fathers on the third Sunday in June, Father’s Day. However, it hasn’t always been popular, because men

“scoffed at the holiday’s sentimental attempts to domesticate manliness with flowers and gift-giving, or they derided the proliferation of such holidays as a commercial gimmick to sell more products–often paid for by the father himself.”

history.com

When World War II began, advertisers insisted that celebrating Father’s Day honored American troops and supported the war effort. By the war’s end Father’s Day was a national institution and in 1972 became a national holiday.

The Prodigal Son

In the Bible, Jesus told a story about a father with two sons who chose different paths in life. He said,

“There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, ‘Father, I want right now what’s coming to me.’

So the father divided the property between them. It wasn’t long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country.

From property to pigs

There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to feel it.

He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corn cobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any. That brought him to his senses. He said,

Hunger for home

‘All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I’m going back to my father. I’ll say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.’

He got right up and went home to his father.

Faithful Father

When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech:

‘Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son ever again.’

But the father wasn’t listening. He was calling to the servants,

‘Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a prize-winning heifer and roast it.

We’re going to feast! We’re going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!’

And they began to have a wonderful time.

Sulking service

All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day’s work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. He told him,

‘Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast—barbecued beef!—because he has him home safe and sound.’

The older brother stomped off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen. The son said,

‘Look how many years I’ve stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!’

Let’s celebrate!

His father said, ‘Son, you don’t understand. You’re with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate.

This brother of yours was dead, and he’s alive! He was lost, and he’s found!’”

THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.

exploring the HEART of healthy families 

The young man who left home in this story, the “lost son”, is sometimes called the prodigal son.

A prodigal is a son/daughter who leaves his or her parents to do things that they do not approve of but then feels sorry and returns home —often used figuratively

merriam-webster.com

You may not have a father who nurtured you, but I hope you can think of someone who played a similar role in your life-another relative, teacher, coach, pastor, or maybe employer. Please find a way to thank and honor that person. When you have an opportunity to “father” someone who needs it, I hope you will. There are a lot of “prodigals” out there.

                 

Both of my sons are fathers. One is the father of a teenager, the other has toddlers. They both learned the art of fatherhood from their dad, my husband.

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