Father's Day

Reflecting on Father’s day invariably brings memories of my own father.

He is always there to be a support when needed, provide advice when asked and lives each day as a model of a man I am striving to be.

In our house when I was growing up, I remember a small plaque, hung on wall, not in a very prominent place but a very prominent place in my mind’s eye with the saying:

                        “The best thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.”

As a physician, may times I am able to see a family at the worst and best of times, seeing the strength of a father in the passing of a loved one and his joy in the birth of a child.  I have truly been blessed to be a witness to these events.

I have stumbled many times in trying to become the father to my children that my father has been to me, but another saying which rings so true for me is…. “It is not the number of times that I fall but the number of times I get up.” With each fall, I feel the helping hand of my father and those that came before me helping me to get up to strive to be the father I hope to be.

Thank you Dad and thanks to all the fathers who have shown me the love of our Heavenly Father touch their families in so many profound ways.