Many years ago, before I was a pastor, I had always noticed in the churches that I served, that there was an obvious difference between Mother’s Day and Father ’s Day recognitions.
I observed that on Mother’s Day, there was always the proverbial recognition of the oldest mother, the youngest mother, the mother with the most children in attendance, etc. But, when Father’s Day was observed, there was never much of a big deal made compared to what was done in regards to Mother’s Day .
This bothered me because I felt like fathers were being slighted quite a bit because there was a much bigger deal made over the mothers than the fathers.
Another observation that I made, before the Lord called me to pastor two churches, was that I always felt sorry for the men and the women in those churches who were never blessed with children for whatever reason. For example, some married couples were physically unable to have children and then some men and women were never married in life. It seemed like on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day that men and women who had never had children, for whatever reason, were made to feel inferior because we didn’t recognize them on these special days.
When God called me to pastor two churches, I decided to do something about this. Here is what I did:
1. Whatever recognitions I made on Mother’s Day, I made the same recognitions on Father’s Day. If we recognized the oldest mother on Mother’s Day then I recognized the oldest father on Father’s Day (mother with the most children in attendance then I recognized father with the most children in attendance, etc.)
2. I decided that I would find a way to honor all men and all women on these days, instead of just those who had children. I knew that some of the most important people in my life, who had some of the greatest impact upon me, were men and women who never had children. So instead of recognizing just mothers on Mother’s Day and just fathers on Father’s Day, the churches I pastored, on Mother’s Day we had Women’s Day and on Father’s Day we had Men’s Day. On Mother’s Day, I recognized all women and on Father’s Day I recognized all men.
I made a special point to say “thank you” to those men and women in our church, though never blessed with children, for their impact upon countless numbers of children’s lives in the church and also in their families and in their community. I gave a brief testimony of the men and women in my life that had made a difference in my childhood/teenage years and the profound impact they made.
Yes, we recognized both mothers and fathers who children equally (we did the same things for both groups), but I also recognized (had them stand up) all of the women and all of the men in attendance and honored them and thanked them for their significant contributions to the kingdom of God.
The “church” should never be a place where a person is made to feel inferior just because of their status in life, including the issue of never having children.
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Have you ever noticed any difference in the way your church celebrates Mother’s Day and Father’s Day? What might happen if we recognized all of the women and all of the men on these two important days?
Just some thoughts about Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.
