Father's Day Advice: Stick with Solomon!

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With Father's Day on the horizon, I was thinking recently about my father-in-law Bill Dickinson who lived from 1926-2019.

When he was nearing the end of his life in 2019, his son Billy--a lifetime preacher, too—sent out a text to several of the family members expressing that–through it all–the Lord has been good to us. Then he said, “You know, I still believe in Romans 8:28.”

Romans 8:28 still is a powerful verse for every believer: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love the Lord …” writes the apostle Paul. Even in the most difficult times, we remember that great promise. While I’ve heard many very smart men water down that scripture through the years, Billy and I–and you, too, I’m sure–still hold to the simple truth the verse declares: All things indeed do work together for good. We are all very glad of it, too.

Billy and I get our black-and-white approach to the Bible honestly. Preacher Miller from down South taught me that principle just about every day I walked on that old red Georgia clay. And Billy’s dad Bill taught him and his family the same approach. Bible interpretation is not as difficult as many make it. It just “means what it says.”

"And it says what it means," Bill would always add to that phrase.

Very true.

One of the famous stories from my father-in-law, "Paw Paw," comes from when he worked for Armco Steel in Houston, a steel mill at which he was a foreman for thirty-seven years. The company once sent him and a number of other men from management to a psychology class to brush up on their leadership skills. Sending Paw Paw to a modern-day psychology class was a little like sending a dog to a cat-grooming class.

During the lecture, the teacher got onto the topic of child-rearing, and many in the class offered comments during the question-and-answer session. Paw Paw had noticed from the beginning that most of that class consisted of highly educated men, even some lawyers and such. And all of them concurred with the teacher that corporal punishment isn’t the way to discipline children nowadays.

He listened patiently during both the lecture and the question/answer session, letting the others do the talking. But the professor knew Bill, and–after a while–he turned to him and said, “Mr. Dickinson, what do you think about all of this?”

You’d have to know my father-in-law, probably, because he was as blunt as he was conservative. You can imagine how the new intellectual school of thought resonated with him, though.

He stood up slowly, looked around the room at that educated crowd, and said,

“Well, I may be the dumbest man in here, with all of you lawyers and educated men. But Solomon said that if you spare the rod, you will ruin your child.”

He paused, thought for a second, then concluded, “I think I’ll just stick with Solomon.”

With that, he sat down.

Case closed.

You know, thinking of that story, I think we'll follow the lead of my father-in-law. We’ll just stick with Romans 8:28, too.

And we’ll stick with the gentlemen in our lives, both now and in years past, who taught us the lessons that keep us grounded—men like Bill Dickinson, the man we called "Paw Paw."