Scott Fillmer

Ok, so call me strange I guess. There are a few holidays that come up each year that I really don’t like, and Father’s Day is one of them. Don’t get me wrong, I love my father dearly (see photo left), and I am sure I will make sure he knows that on Sunday.

In general, when you work for yourself, holidays just become a pain in the neck anyway. No one works, you can’t ship orders out, sales go down, and the entire world is “out” running around when they normally are not. But, fathers day is the topic. I will say that there is one reason why I like fathers day, to be able to honor my own earthly father, who to me is one of the greatest and most meaningful people in my life, and to remember that we have a father in Heaven that is better than any earthly father we could have in any form.

But there are more reasons I don’t like this particular holiday, what about you? Not a father yet? Well, here is what’s in store for you.

1. It is a Made Up Day

You can say this about most holidays in general, they are man-made, made up days. Father’s Day was a celebration inaugurated in the early twentieth century to complement Mother’s Day, and first celebrated in the U.S. on July 5th 1908

2. Churches Celebrate This Day in Services

For some reason, even though it has long since lost its Christian heritage it is still put forth as a day we celebrate in the worship service itself. I would rather see its spiritual meaning talked about than how important fathers are (yes, I know they are) to all of us.

3. Churches Don’t Seem to Know its Origin in Faith

No church I have been to in the last 35 years (yes I have been going to church that long) has ever explained to me the spiritual meaning on how Father’s Day was started. In Germany is was called Männertag and was always celebrated on Ascension Day (the Thursday forty days after Easter), and it was a day for men to go do something together, like hiking or some other manly activity.

In the Roman Catholic tradition, Father’s Day is celebrated on Saint Joseph’s Day, commonly called Feast of Saint Joseph, March 1, but it is pretty much a secular day or secular celebration. Here in the U.S., the first celebrated Father’s Day was in a church. The Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South, now known as Central United Methodist Church. It was suggested to the pastor (some believe) because of a deadly mine explosion (called the Monongah Mining disaster) that had just happened killing 361 men. Another reason is Mother’s Day was first celebrated two month prior.

4. It’s Another Day of Required Gift Buying

Notice I said gift buying and not gift giving. I love gift giving, but I don’t like to be told by the calendar when it should be done. My wife and I have always thought this way. If you want to give someone a gift, give it to them, don’t hold back for some government made holiday. I don’t like the feeling of required giving that comes with holidays.

5. It Reminds Me How Old I Am

Remember back when Father’s Day would roll around and your mother would have prepared something for you to give your father or you would do something in church for your father. All designed to make sure you didn’t forget it (as a kid how could you remember it), but some day, you were required to remember yourself. Now my son is old enough to remember without being told.

6. It Reminds Me What a Lousy Father I Was

I have a feeling that some people don’t like Father’s Day because they had lousy fathers. I for one did not. My father took me to baseball games, football games, and all the normal fatherly stuff.

But that didn’t make me a good father (I say past tense because now that my son is out of the house I think that has made me a better father, haha). Father’s Day for me personally just reminds me of my shortcomings when my son was at home. My grandson William (see photo above of me and William) however is the cutest little guy ever (I am sure he doesn’t want to hear that) and I was thrilled to get to spend some time with him. He has a great dad. Don’t know where he gets it from but Bryan (my son) is such a fantastic dad to William.

7. It Reminds Me of the Fathers Who Are No Longer Here

Mother’s Day this year was different for my wife. She had just lost her mother to cancer less than a month earlier. This has to be the same thing with son’s who have lost their father over the last year. I know one in particular, Josh (see WILLIAM WALKER AGERTON), our Connections Pastor at the church.

I know he will be remembering his father this Sunday (although he is in Uganda right now) as my wife and I remembered Georgia on Mother’s Day. Others I know won’t get to see their fathers like my brother over at Worship Journey who’s father is a missionary in Africa.

8. You Are Reminded to Spend Time With Dad

Not that celebrating fathers is not important, but it usually has some time requirement attached to it. You can’t do this or that because it is Father’s Day. I spent time with my dad almost every day. I am lucky, yes. We usually walk about 2-3 miles together at the end of each day when he is in town and I am home. That usually equates to 3-4 days a week, but we often work together on the weekends or attend some sporting event together.

I don’t need to be reminded to spend time with my dad. I do it because I want to, not because the calendar tells me to.

9. The Restaurants Are Always Full

You can never get a table at a restaurant without waiting on Father’s Day. Being that it is on a Sunday (thank goodness for that), everyone finds it necessary to take fathers out for lunch after church. Don’t these people take their fathers out to eat any other time during the year? Same as with mothers day, if you want to eat after church (most do) you have to wait more than usual.

10. It is One More Day to Commercialize

And I saved the big one for last. Yes, it is yet one more day we can listen to a barrage of advertisements telling us buy buy tools and gift cards for our fathers. This starts just about when Mother’s Day ends. Walmart changes everything over the Sunday of Mother’s Day and that’s it, we’re toast.

For the next two months we are overwhelmed with advertisements from every angle, radio, tv, Internet, church, work, school, you name it. Somehow NASCAR and Father’s Day seem to go hand in hand now to. They actually take off on Mother’s Day and don’t have a race. How in the world could anyone who is actually breathing forget what day is Father’s Day. I love the Peanuts Christmas special. After the tirade that Charlie Brown and Linus goes on about how commercialized Christmas has become and then Linus reads Matthew.

We seem to be a society of one that moves from one holiday to the other commercially. There is no down time, we are constantly being told what holiday is next on the buying list. Do me a favor, don’t buy me anything for Father’s Day, oh, and by the way, I love you dad.