The Instruction of Your Father
We have been told for many years of the extremely high volume of phone calls to mothers on Mothers’ Day. Maybe you have wondered how that number compares to calls to fathers on Fathers’ Day. Here are some interesting statistics from a time when landlines were much more commonplace.
While Mother's Day is the biggest holiday for phone calls, Father's Day is the busiest for collect calls. (The overall busiest day of the year for phone calls is the Monday after Thanksgiving.) In 1998, Dave Johnson, a spokesman for AT&T's corporate headquarters in New Jersey, said, "Father's Day is our biggest day for collect calls, not just the biggest holiday, but the biggest day of the year." These calls are inclined to be longer than the average, too.
"The difference between Father's Day and Mother's Day and a typical Sunday is that calls on the holidays tend to be three to four minutes longer," said Johnson. "A typical long distance call is eight minutes long. Mother's Day and Father's Day calls average eleven minutes." This state of affairs has been the way of things for years. In 1992, AT&T reported 83 million calls were made on Father's Day, compared to 106 million for Mother's Day. But 27% more of the Dad's Day calls were collect.
This difference between mothers and fathers can also been seen in the sports realm. When the television camera is trained on an athlete after doing something spectacular, to whom do they most often send their greetings? MOTHERS!
On Fathers’ Day, what kinds of things come to your mind about your father? Is it his strength of body and character? Is it his wise counsel? Is it his endurance and patience? Perhaps it is his firm hand of discipline and correction that you now see as indispensable in your life.
One thing is for certain. There will come a day when your father will be around no longer. You will not be able to ask him for instruction. Then, you will know how valuable he really was. My father said that to me about losing his father. I know I’ll feel the same way no matter how old I happen to be at that time.
Solomon advised his son with these words. “My son, hear the instruction of your father and do not forsake the law of your mother; for they will be a graceful ornament on your head and chains about your neck.” (Proverbs 1:8-9). I wonder what is the intention between “the instruction of your father” and “the law of your mother”?
All good parents have laws and expectations of their children. But, it seems that we think of mothers having ideas of how things should be and the fathers are the ones who enforce those expectations. We seem naturally to think of fathers as the disciplinarians. I have never heard of a father who said, “Just wait till your mother gets home!”
— Mike Johnson
