Over the years I have written an extensive array of books, articles, blogs and quotes. During special times of the year, I search these writings for quotes to both enrich and enlarge our celebration of that particular season.
For Father’s Day, I have selected a handful of quotations that express the power and importance of being a father. In a culture that has too often forsaken the role of parents in the lives of their children, these quotes dutifully and unashamedly reassert those roles.
May father’s everywhere be emboldened, enriched and encouraged in their vitally important role as fathers.
Father’s Day Quotes
“If I have held a part of myself back from my children, I have obviously spent some time calculating the expense of being a father. And the fact is, a real father doesn’t do that kind of math.”
“If a father does not altogether embrace a life of uncompromised sacrifice as the core of all principles by which he nurtures his children, he is a father by birth only and no power on earth can ever or will ever make that sufficient.”
“To lead solely on the behalf of those being led is the utter pinnacle of fatherhood, and it is sad that so few ever stand on the summit.”
“A parent holds within their hands the gift of a child to which they must expend the gift of themselves. And in such a monumental outpouring, the parent will lose both the child and the gifts given, but they will possess the far greater gift of knowing that they gave both.”
“A father teaches his children that the battle is not determined by the enemy that stands around them, but by the God Who stands within them. And that lesson can only be driven home as they watch their father stand around them, while God stands within their father.”
“Every parent is an artist, for the bared canvas of a newborn’s soul begs for the artist’s touch. And because this is so, a parent must prepare the palette with the utmost care, choose the brushes with poised caution, and mindfully attend to every brushstroke regardless of how slight. And such caution is utterly imperative for the emerging rendering will be both a legacy borne of the parent, and a life lived by the child.”
“The father who has selflessly poured himself into the life of his children may leave no other monument than that of his children. But as for a life well lived, no other monument is necessary.”
“The child you hold in your arms is your gift to a future that you will not see. Therefore, we must turn a blind eye to ourselves and selflessly pour the best of ourselves into our children while rigorously sifting out the worst of ourselves. And once we are utterly spent by such daring gestures, we will shockingly discover the resulting emptiness as astonishingly filled.”
“A ‘good’ father will tenderly cultivate his children. But a ‘good’ father who is also a ‘brave’ father will let the children without cultivate the child within.”
“If we fail to instill a fixed sense of confidence in our children, we will raise handicapped children who have no handicap other than the conviction that they believe they do.”
“If as an adult I have scolded and then silenced the child within me, I contend that I am neither an adult nor a child. Rather, I am just plain ignorant.”
“The clash is born of the fact that the child within me sees with undiluted clarity what the adult within me is incessantly working to deny. And in these most vexing moments, to be the adult is to defer to the child.”
“The difference between a ‘man’ and a ‘father’ is that the former shares his genes, but latter gives his life.”
Craig Lounsbrough
M. Div., LPC