To Fathers Everywhere

In acknowledgment of Sunday, June 20, Father’s Day, we share quotes about fathering and fatherhood—some inspiring, some amusing, some authoritative—from famous and not-so-famous sources.

“Fathers, spend as much time as possible with your children. Seek to become acquainted with their various dispositions, that you may know how to train them in harmony with the Word of God.”

Ellen G. White

“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.”*

Psalm 103:13

“A father is neither an anchor to hold us back nor a sail to take us there, but a guiding light . . . whose love shows us the way.”

Unknown

“You, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”

Isaiah 64:8

“Every father should remember one day his son will follow his example, not his advice.”

Charles Kettering

Jabal: “He was the father of those who live in tents.” Jubal: “He was the fatherof all who play stringed instruments and pipes.”

Genesis 4:20, 21

Philip: “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough.” Jesus: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”

John 14:8, 9

“It is admirable for a man to take his son fishing, but there is a special place in heaven for the father who takes his daughter shopping.”

John Sinor

“A daughter may outgrow your lap but she’ll never outgrow your heart.”

Unknown

“One day when [Aksah] came to Othniel, she urged himto ask her father for a field. When she got off her donkey, Caleb asked her, ‘What can I do for you?’ She replied, ‘Do me a special favor. Since you have given me land in the Negev, give me also springs of water.’ So Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs.”

Judges 1:14, 15

“A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty.”

Ziad K. Abdelnour

“Naaman’s servants went to him and said, ‘My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? . . . So he went down and dipped himself . . . , as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored . . . like that of a young boy.”

2 Kings 5:13, 14

“My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, ‘You’re tearing up the grass.’ ‘We’re not raising grass,’ Dad would reply. ‘We’re raising boys.’ ”

Harmon Killebrew

“Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”

Ephesians 6:4

“I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren’t trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.”

Umberto Eco

“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.”

Exodus 20:12

“My father used to say that it’s never too late to do anything you wanted to do. And he said, ‘You never know what you can accomplish until you try.’ ”

Michael Jordan

“I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.”

Sigmund Freud

“Any fool can have a child. That doesn’t make you a father. It’s the courage to raise a child that makes you a father.”

Barack Obama

“I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want to do and advise them to do it.”

Harry S. Truman

“Fathering is not something perfect men do, but something that perfects the man.”

Frank Pittman

“This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob. . . . David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife, . . . Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon. . . . After the exile to Babylon . . . : Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.”

Matthew 1:1-16

* All Bible texts are from the New International Version.