Good morning, and Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads reading this. I lost my Dad a couple of years ago, and I sure miss him. So take my advice, if you’re Dad is still with you, do tell him you love him while you can. Believe it or not, he won’t always be around.

Most people know Mother’s Day has been celebrated for a very long time. It began back in the 1860’s and was declared a national holiday in 1914. Father’s Day is a slightly newer invention. In 1908, a preacher in a church in West Virginia preached a sermon in remembrance of some 362 miners who had been killed in a coal mining explosion. That was, as far as we know, the first time men had been honored in such a way. But it wasn’t until the next year that Sonora Smart Dodd sought to make a day honoring fathers a national tradition. She and her six siblings had been raised by her father alone, and she felt that all fathers should be honored the same way as mothers. It took a lot of time and effort, and lobbying the government, but in 1910, her home state of Washington celebrated its very first Father’s Day on June 19.

Years later, it was President Nixon who declared Father’s Day a national holiday in 1972.

So, as I say, Happy Father’s Day! I hope it’s a special one for you.

Here’s your VIDEO SERMON for this week. May the Lord bless you and speak to your heart.