Father's Day- My Guiding Star

by Jeannine Carroll

I teach senior fitness classes and wanted to have a gift for the father's on Father's Day.  I wrote this story to portray the immense importance of Christian father's and the role they play in guiding their children.
I made a star tie tac to give each father.  It was fun!  (I marbled red, white and blue polymer clay and cut the stars out with little cookie type cutters).

                                                                                                                                                                   

Tie Tacs and Card for Fathers

As a boy, one weekend my family decided to go camping in the nearby Rockies.  After Mom and my two younger siblings had gone to bed, Dad and I were waiting for the campfire to die down.  Finally we shoveled some dirt over the coals and made sure no hot spots were left.  We’d be leaving tomorrow.

Dad said, “Come on, Son.  Let’s take a walk.”  We took a path that lead to an overlook.  As we stopped, I stared down with fascination at a vast ocean of sparkling lights. The city looked endless.

“Now turn around,” Dad instructed, as he switched off his flashlight.  I turned away from the lights of the city below.  My eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness of the nearly moonless night and I could make out shadows of pines and a few aspens.

         “Look up,” Dad said.  I looked up and was amazed by the hundreds of stars I could see.  At home they were a pale sight compared to the bright lights of the city.  Here they were brilliant.

        Dad said, “You know people have not always had electricity and cars and computers. For thousands of years, they looked up to the heavens for guidance.  These stars helped them to find their way.  Now we look to gadgets to help us find our way, thinking we’d be lost without them.”

        “Son, you will never get lost if you remember to look up for God’s guidance.  Sometimes you will have to step away from the world’s brightness to see the true light.”

        As I listened to my dad, even at that young age, I knew that the brightest guiding star God had given me, was talking to me right now.

••••••••••

        Fathers have been guiding their children since the beginning of time.  The greatest have taught them to look up to find answers to life’s purpose.

Please accept this pin as a symbol of the “Guiding Star” you have been to the generations that follow close behind you. Thank you for accepting the life’s work of being a father.  There is no greater calling.

Happy Father’s Day!